Beaver, West Virginia-based Albatross Air has one around its neck. It would appear that maintenance and an otherwise intelligent decision not to top the tanks caused a serious crash of one its charters, a Beechcraft 58 Baron (N86BR), in a Rainelle, West Virginia backyard on 18 September 2010. Albatross is a charter, flight instruction and maintenance company.
According to the recently issued NTSB factual report, the Baron was cruising at 8,000ft on the return leg of a charter flight from Morgantown (MGW) back to Mercer County (BLF) with one pilot and four paying passengers. First the right engine unexpectedly shut down, followed shortly thereafter by the right.
The pilot definitely had "the right stuff" in the left seat of the now-quiet cockpit. Before the left engine failed, he tried to turn the left fuel tank selector to cross-feed from the left tank to try and restart the right engine, a natural reaction when an engine fails. The fuel selector wouldn't budge however.
After the left engine failed he feathered both props for maximum glide, set up best glide angle and continued in vain to restart an engine.
Reaching the airport was not an option, so the pilot picked a yard and flew to the ground, sliding about 60ft before hitting the back of a house. As testament to pilot skill and a solid airplane, all five on board received only minor injuries.
An investigation revealed the accident was completely avoidable.
"Further examination of the left fuel selector knob revealed that when in the "On" position, indicating that the left engine was drawing fuel from the left tank, fuel was actually drawing from the right tank," says the NTSB. The left fuel selector valve had been removed, resealed and reinstalled during annual maintenance on 8 September 2010. The NTSB did not state which company did the work.
How much fuel was on board is also a topic of interest. Albatross had topped off the Baron with 200 gallons (194 gallons usable fuel) the week before, flying 3.2 hours in the interim before the accident flight. Had the fuel system worked properly, there would in theory have been plenty of fuel for the flight. NTSB retrieved no fuel from the right tank; the left tank had been punctured during the accident and 5 gallons remained.
Why the pilot was not clued in to the right tank being much lower than it should have been, eventually running dry, is unclear, and had he topped off for the charter flight, the problem would likely have remained uncovered.
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