NTSB Factual Report

On July 7, 2014, at 2101 central daylight time, a Cessna 172H single-engine airplane, N3732R, was substantially damaged during an off-airport forced landing at Baytown, Texas. The pilot and both passengers sustained serious injuries. No persons on the ground were injured. The airplane was registered to a private individual and operated by a different private individual. Night visual meteorological conditions (VMC) prevailed at the time of the accident and a flight plan had not been filed for the 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. The airplane had departed Baytown Airport (HPY), Baytown, Texas, about 2015 for a local flight.

The pilot reported that he departed HPY and flew around the local area for about 45-minutes on a sightseeing flight. After touchdown on his return landing at HPY he decided to do a touch-and-go. During initial climb, when the airplane was southbound and about 400 feet above ground level (agl), there was a complete loss of engine power. The pilot identified a forced landing area to his direct front and maneuvered the airplane to touchdown southbound in a flat clear area which was immediately adjacent to two lighted baseball diamonds in a city park. When the airplane was descending at 50 feet agl the right wing impacted the bottom set of wires on a 100-foot tall electrical transmission line. The pilot reported that he never saw the wires, but saw a bright flash as the airplane came in contact with them. Control was lost and the airplane impacted terrain and a fence on the edge of the unoccupied baseball diamond and came to rest inverted. There was no postimpact fire. Emergency responders arrived quickly and extracted the victims from the wreckage.

The pilot reported that he had last added fuel more than 6 months previous, but he did not then "top off" the tanks. He was unsure how much fuel had been added, but stated there was likely a total of about 32 gallons of fuel after refueling. He estimated the airplane had been flown about 2 hours 20 minutes since then, and estimated there should have been about 7 gallons, or about 45 minutes of fuel remaining at the time of the accident. Data from the airplane's hand-held GPS showed that within the previous 6 months the device had recorded flights totaling about 3 hours 54 minutes.

An on-scene examination of the wreckage showed no evidence of fuel. The examination of the airplane and the engine showed no preaccident mechanical malfunctions of anomalies that would have prevented normal operations.

At 2050 the automated weather observing system at Ellington Airport (EFD), Houston, Texas, about 16 nautical miles southwest from the accident site, reported wind from 160 degrees at 4 knots, visibility of 10 miles, scattered clouds at 18,000 feet, broken clouds at 25,000 feet, temperature 28 degrees Celsius (C), dew point 24 degrees C, with an altimeter setting of 30.00 inches of mercury. Data from the U. S. Naval Observatory shows that sunset occurred at 2024, and the end of evening civil twilight occurred at 2051.

NTSB Probable Cause

The pilot’s failure to verify the fuel onboard before the flight, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.