NTSB Factual Report

On Saturday afternoon, August 7, 1993, at 1420 mountain daylight time, a Brauch Glasair, N365WB, registered to the pilot, impacted terrain 43 miles west southwest of Blanding, Utah, during an emergency forced landing. There was no flight plan filed for the personal cross country flight to Las Vegas, Nevada, conducted under 14 CFR 91 in visual meteorological conditions, that departed Denver, Colorado on August 7, 1993, at 1209. The airline transport rated pilot, Mr. Walter Brauch, and his wife, Fritzie Brauch, were fatally injured in the accident. The aircraft was destroyed. There was no fire. The pilot broadcast a distress call, received by the FAA Salt Lake ARTCC, that the aircraft was out of fuel and he was going down. A search was initiated and the wreckage was located about 1200 MDT, August 10, 1993, in remote rugged desert terrain. Mr. Jerry Pekin, a pilot who built and owned a Glasair aircraft, reported in a telephone interview that he had assisted his friend, the pilot, in building N365WB. He said the 34 gallon main fuel tanks specified in factory plans had been modified to hold at least 40 gallons and that the total fuel capacity of the aircraft, including the six gallon header tank, though never actually tested, was about 46 gallons. He said the pilot had determined the aircraft fuel consumption to be 10 gallons per hour in normal operation. Fuel records indicated the aircraft was topped off with 21 gallons of fuel on the day of the accident before the pilot departed on the flight. The control tower records indicated the aircraft departed the Centennial Airport at 1209 MDT and the last recorded radio transmission from the aircraft was at 1420 MDT, an elapsed time of 2:11 hours. An examination of the wreckage by an aircraft mechanic revealed there were eight loose fuel line connector fittings in the aircraft fuel system, and fuel stains on the engine firewall and lower fuselage aft of the loose fitting. The electric fuel boost pump switch in the wreckage was in the on position. The pilot's family reported he had not maintained a logbook after he retired as an airline pilot in 1977 and his flight time could not be determined. He wrote on the application for his last FAA medical certificate that he had 30,000 hours total flight time.

NTSB Probable Cause

THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER RESULTING FROM INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE INSPECTION BY THE PILOT, A LEAK FROM LOOSE FUEL SYSTEM LINE FITTINGS, AND FUEL EXHAUSTION. A FACTOR RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE ROUGH/UNEVEN TERRAIN.