172 Ran Out of Gas While Authorities 'Checked For Flight Plan'

The AOPA is miffed (and they're not alone...). The organization notes: a Baltimore-area pilot and two passengers were injured Sunday after they were forced to wait so long for clearance into the Washington, D.C. Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) that they ran out of fuel.

"Fuel management is the pilot's responsibility," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "But having said that, AOPA has repeatedly warned FAA and the Transportation Security Administration that the operational gridlock caused by the ADIZ procedures would result in an accident, and now it appears that this has happened."

AOPA has interviewed the owner of the accident aircraft and will file a Freedom of Information Act request for the ATC and FSS audiotapes. AOPA will review the information to determine where the FAA system failed and redouble efforts to fix the problems.

...but was there a flight plan?

According to the pilot, Dale Roger, in an interview he gave to The Baltimore Sun newspaper, he circled outside the ADIZ for about an hour while air traffic controllers tried to locate his flight plan. All aircraft operating inside the ADIZ are required to have an active VFR or IFR flight plan.

Roger told the Sun he had a flight plan on file and active. A spokesperson for the FAA says a preliminary investigation showed none of the flight service stations that cover the route of Roger's flight had a record of a flight plan being filed.

AOPA: 'We told you so.'

In March, AOPA submitted recommendations on how the FAA could revise the procedures to make them workable while still maintaining security. These procedures would include established ingress and egress routes and airport specific transponder codes. Despite heavy lobbying by AOPA with homeland security officials and the FAA, these procedures have not been implemented, with the exception of eliminating the flight plan requirement for closed traffic pattern operations at two towered airports using a single transponder code.

On June 9, AOPA received responses from the FAA and TSA denying the request for ingress and egress routes and stating that the other recommendations are still under review.

"This response is not acceptable," said Boyer. "As the accident clearly demonstrates, there is a seriously safety-of-flight issue that is being ignored."

[As Mr. Boyer noted, the pilot should not have run out of gas. His options included diverting, amending his flight plan, or -- worst case, and sure to cause a truckload of paperwork and probably a greeting from the cops -- simply declaring an emergency. Running out of fuel showed poor systems-management skill and/or poor judgment, flight plan or no flight plan --ed.]

**   Report created 7/1/2003   Record 20  **
IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 5138G        Make/Model: C172      Description: 172, P172, R172, Skyhawk, Hawk
  Date: 06/29/2003     Time: 1635
  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Unknown
LOCATION
  City: BALTIMORE   State: MD   Country: US
DESCRIPTION
  ACFT MADE A FORCED LANDING FOR UNKNOWN REASONS FOUR MILES SHORT OF RUNWAY 15/33, MARTIN STATE AIRPORT, BALTIMORE, MD
INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:  1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   2     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
WEATHER: METAR KMTN 291645Z 15010KT 10SM SCT034 28/21 A3015
OTHER DATA
  Activity: Unknown      Phase: Landing      Operation: General Aviation
  Departed: UNK                         Dep Date:    Dep. Time:
  Destination: UNK                      Flt Plan: NONE         Wx Briefing: U
  Last Radio Cont: UNK
  Last Clearance: UNK
  FAA FSDO: BALTIMORE, MD  (EA07)                 Entry date: 06/30/2003

FMI: www.faa.gov