ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 207307
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| Date: | Friday 8 July 2005 |
| Time: | 18:36 UTC |
| Type: |  Dallach D4/E-S Fascination |
| Owner/operator: | |
| Registration: | D-EYKL |
| MSN: | EB016 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Buch-Obenhausen -
 Germany
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Illertissen Airfield (EDMI) |
| Illertissen Airfield (EDMI) | |
| Investigating agency: | BFU |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The pilot took off at 20:12 h (all times local) from his home airfield in Illertissen for a sightseeing flight. According to his information, he had previously made sure that he had a sufficient amount of fuel for his flight plan.The level in the sighting tube stood at 3-4 cm, which in his estimation should have been enough for at least one more hour. After a short flight, the engine stuttered and failed. Restart attempts were unsuccessful. With the engine stopped, the airplane crossed the connecting road between the villages of Ebersbach and Obenhau at 20:36, while the pilot attempted to reach a field path. Witnesses reported the aircraft as being very slow with the propeller stopped. South of the road at low altitude, the aircraft dropped the right wing and crashed into a cornfield where it overturned. The severely injured pilot was trapped in the wreckage and had to be rescued by emergency services. A small fire in the engine compartmant had to be extinguished by a first responder using a handheld fire extinguisher.
Both carburettor float chambers were found to be empty. The fuel tank was ruptured and contained no fuel. The electrical fuel pump was found switched off.
The aircraft was built from a kit by a previous owner. The fuel selector / shut-off valve had been adapted from a motorcycle component by adding an extension rod. It had the positons CLOSED - OPEN - CLOSED - RESERVE and was found to be in the OPEN position. The investigator noted the selector to be noteably difficult to move. The added extension was found to be broken and there was corrosion found upstream of the RESERVE position.
The fuel gauge consisted of a sight tube in the instrument panel. There were no markings or indications to determing the fuel level or when to switch to RESERVE. The fuel selector extension in the instrument panel had no markings for the positions CLOSED, OPEN and RESERVE either.
Analysis:
No technical defects were found in the aircraft's engine. The engine failed due to fuel starvation.
From the point of view of the BFU, the flight was commenced with unsufficient fuel quantity. In the absence of markings, the pilot judged the fuel gauge from his experience with an aircraft of a similar type. It was not possible to reconstruct the fuel level.
When the engine failed after a short flight, a restart was attempted but the fuel selector was not switched to RESERVE. It is unclear whether the auxiliary electric fuel pump was switched on, but it was found to be switched off after the accident. During the attempted forced landing, the airspeed was not maintained and the aircraft stalled.
Conclusion:
The accident was caused by failure of the pilot to maintain airspeed durign an attempted forced landing due to engine failure after fuel starvation.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://www.bfu-web.de/DE/Publikationen/Untersuchungsberichte/2005/Bericht_05_3X096_Buch-Obenhausen_D4.pdf?__blob=publicationFile
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 10-Mar-2018 10:58 | TB | Added |
| 27-Oct-2023 14:02 | Anon. | Updated |
| 27-Oct-2023 14:02 | harro | Updated |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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