Aircraft Was Not Refueled Before Second Solo Flight

The father of a student pilot has sued the flight school where he was working towards a private pilot certificate over an accident in which the student was fatally injured.

Television station WAGA reports that the lawsuit was filed Friday in Cobb County, GA where the flight school is located. The father of the 21-year-old student pilot said that the school was negligent because it forgot to refuel the Piper Tomahawk before Joseph Hughes second solo flight last October.

According to the report, Hughes had about 13 hours in his logbook when the accident occurred. He was on his second solo flight performing touch-and-goes when the fuel was exhausted. According to the lawsuit, the plane had not been refueled after it had been flown for nearly five hours several days previous to the accident.

According to the NTSB's preliminary report, a witness said the student pilot was on his second supervised solo flight. After takeoff from JZP, he flew out to the practice area and came back to the airport about an hour later. The student pilot then performed a touch and go landing on runway 16. During the climb after the touch and go, the witness heard the engine suddenly stop running. The airplane then "sunk down" and he observed the airplane turn to the left like the airplane was going to return to the airport. The airplane then appeared to enter an aerodynamic stall and then spin to the left. It was then observed to descend rapidly while still in the spin until it was lost from view behind trees, and the sound of impact was heard.

After opening the fuel tank caps of the airplane in the position it came to rest in, with the left wing parallel to the ground, and the right wingtip about 6 feet above the ground with the right wing at an approximately 29-degree angle to the ground, a small amount of fuel approximately 1/4 inch deep was observed in the bottom of the left tank. None could be observed in the right tank.

After suspending the attached cabin section from a crane in a wings level position and draining the fuel system, examination of the contents of the left and right fuels tanks revealed that a negligible amount of fuel was present in the left fuel tank, and approximately a 1/2 cup of fuel was present in the right tank.

Examination of fuel receipts revealed that the airplane had last been refueled on October 5, 2015.

Examination of the "Time Sheet" which was recovered from the wreckage indicated that after it had been refueled, the airplane had flown on four other flights prior to the accident flight. Further examination of the time sheet also revealed that when the accident occurred, the airplane had flown 4.9 hours since the last refueling, according to the NTSB.

Hughes was initially not going to fly that day because the airplane was undergoing maintenance. But according to his father he was called and told the plane was available, and he decided to go fly.

Hughes father Michael said his son had had a love of flying since he was a small child.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov