NTSB Says, 'Yup, It Ran Out of Gas'
One year ago yesterday, the wreckage of the Boeing
307 Stratoliner that had gone swimming near Seattle on March 28,
2002 was returned to the restoration project. The NTSB has now
issued its final report.
The summary narrative follows, but confirms just about
everyone's suspicions: the beautifully-restored Stratoliner, the
last one flying in the world, had been the victim of a bad
preflight, and bad in-flight communication: it ran out of
gas.
Had not the captain made an exquisite water landing, the
plane, and quite possibly some of the crew, could have been lost
forever. (We take our victories where we find them.)
NTSB summarizes:
The crew had originally planned to practice
landings at an airport about 20 minutes away, then stop, refuel the
airplane, and subsequently return to the original departure
airport. Prior to the flight, the crew discussed fuel endurance,
which was calculated to be 2 hours based on the captain's knowledge
of the airplane's fuel consumption, and the quantity of fuel
indicated on the gauges. The fuel tanks were not dipped. The flight
was made at 1,500 feet msl. Upon reaching the practice airport, the
crew conducted one full stop landing, then taxied back for takeoff.
During takeoff, an engine had a momentary overspeed, and the crew
decided to return to the original departure airport without
refueling. Approaching the original departure airport, the airplane
had to delay landing for about 7 minutes for a manual gear
extension. Upon completion, it turned back toward the airport, and
was about 6 miles from the runway when fuel pressure for one of the
engines dropped. The boost pumps were turned on; however, the
engine lost power. A low fuel pressure light then illuminated for
another engine. The captain called for the flight engineer to
switch fuel feed to another tank, but the flight engineer
responded, "we're out of fuel." The remaining engines subsequently
lost power, and the captain ditched the airplane into a bay. The
time from first takeoff until ditching was 1 hour, 19 minutes.
The airplane had flown 39 hours since restoration, and exact
fuel capacities, fuel flow calculations and unusable fuel amounts
had not been established. A dipping chart had been prepared, with
one person in the cockpit and one person with a yardstick putting
fuel in a main tank in 25-gallon increments. However, the data had
not been verified, and dipping was not considered to be part of the
pre-flight inspection.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable
cause(s) of this accident as follows:
Loss of all engine power due to fuel exhaustion that resulted
from the flight crew's failure to accurately determine onboard fuel
during the pre-flight inspection. A factor contributing to the
accident was a lack of adequate crew communication regarding the
fuel status.