Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Sacramento Mather Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Rancho Cordova, California 95742
Wednesday, November 10, 2004 19:42 PST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
Following a loss of engine power, the pilot made a forced landing on a street about 1.2 miles from the airport, and collided with trees and the center median. A responding law enforcement officer, who was also a pilot, examined the fuel tanks on scene. Virtually no usable fuel was found. The main fuel tanks were "bone dry," and only 1.75 gallons were found in the left tip tank. The pilot planed the nearly 6-hour-long flight as a nonstop between south eastern New Mexico and northern California. About 4 hours into the flight, with 2 hours left to go, the airplane experienced electrical malfunctions, which resulted in losing all generated alternator power. The airplane's master electrical switch was turned off to conserve residual battery power. The pilot decided to complete the nighttime flight to his original destination without operative navigation lights or any of the electrically driven instruments even though he passed over numerous airports during this time. Occasionally during the latter portion of the flight, the master switch was turned on in order to provide navigation guidance information to the pilot and to ascertain the quantity of fuel remaining as indicated by the electrically driven supplemental fuel flow/quantity computer. The airplane's owner, who was a passenger, advised the pilot of his concern regarding the validity of the fuel computer's indication since electric power to it had been interrupted. The pilot relied upon the fuel quantity computer in lieu of the standard fuel quantity indicators to ascertain the amount of available fuel in the tanks.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The pilot's failure to refuel the airplane prior to fuel exhaustion, which resulted in a loss of engine power. Contributing factors were the pilot's improper in-flight decision to continue the flight at night after experiencing the total failure of the airplane's alternators, which resulted in inaccurate supplemental fuel quantity indications, and, the pilot's reliance upon the inaccurate data for fuel remaining information.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 11/10/2004 |
| Event Day of the Week | Wednesday |
| Time of Event | 1942 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Standard Time |
| Event City | Rancho Cordova |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 95742 |
| Event Date Year | 2004 |
| Event Date Month | 11 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 383434N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1211535W |
| Event Location Airport | Sacramento Mather |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | MHR |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 2 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | -- |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | -- |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | -- |
| Lighting Conditions | Night |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | -- |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | -- |
| Variable Wind Indicator | -- |
| Wind Speed (knots) | -- |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | -- |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 2 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | -- |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 17327 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Nov 10 2004 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 2011 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Feb 24 2005 9:13AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\JOHB |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Sacramento, CA |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N6416W |
| NTSB Number | LAX05CA030 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | No |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | -- |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Cessna |
| Aircraft Model | P210N |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | P21000773 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | -- |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | -- |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | -- |
| Date of Last Inspection | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | Unknown |
| ELT Activated | Unknown |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Three Mile High, LLC |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | -- |
| Aircraft Owner State | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Country | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | -- |
| Operator is an individual? | Yes |
| Operator Name | Carter Flygare |
| Operator Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | Sacramento |
| Operator State | CA |
| Operator Country | USA |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | -- |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Business |
| Second Pilot on Board | -- |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | ROW |
| Departure City | Roswell |
| Departure State | NM |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1442 |
| Departure Time Zone | MST |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | SAC |
| Destination City | Sacramento |
| Destination State | CA |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | -- |
| User who most recently changed record | -- |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 22L |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |