That's exactly what happened to one pilot on May 04, 2003. He didn't get off to a good start that day, as he required to be reminded how his plane worked, and was heard to say to one person who helped him "its been four and a half months since I've been in an airplane, I can't even figure out how to put the radios back in,". This was despite the fact he had 412 hours of flying in that particular plane, a Cessena 411. Oops.

After this brilliant start to the day it was time to make a start and get the plane to it's destination - a propeller company, which was to perform routine maintenance work to one of the propellors. Since he was going to have to pay one company for maintaining his plane, a little money saving was in order, and he decided he was not going to have his plane refueled, despite the last time the plane was refueled being October 31, 2002 - 8 months previously. He also may well have failed to reset circuit breakers which were probably pulled by maintenance crews in a common procedure to prevent the fuel transfer pumps from operating continuosly. These important components transfer fuel from the main fuel tank to where it can be routed to the engine along with the fuel from the tanks located in the wings. Them being inoperational meant only fuel from the wing tanks was powering the engines.

The pilot then experienced a normal take off. However, as he reached 4,000 feet, the left engine cut out. The left wing tank had been sucked dry from previous flights. The pilot immediately informed Air Traffic Control, and turned back to make an emergency landing.

On the Cessna 411, the left engine is the 'critical engine', meaning that loss of it makes controling the aircraft difficult at low speeds. Should any pilot lose his left engine, he should immediatly power up the right engine. The aircraft's owner's manuel says a minimum speed should be 103MPH, although it does not recomend being below 105MPH. The engines should not be on the low power setting, known as "windmilling". It is, for all that, true that the pilot set the left engine to windmill, and he did power up the right engine, but left it well below the crucial 103MPH mark.

The next factor we should consider is the landing gear. Landing gear isn't at all streamlined - it's for landing, not for flying. Omce you're up, you retract the landing gear, and there it stays untill you land. It also effects handling of the plane. Of course, so soon after takeoff the landing gear was still extended. So you would expect a pilot in a poorly handling plane to retract the landing gear.The standard procedure for landing sans left engine actually makes a point about this. But, once again, the pilot didn't.

Finally, the propeller should be feathered - adjusted to fine tune it's thrust and efficiency. If the propeller was fully feathered during normal flight, you would most likely rip your airplane apart. But it is often crucial to increase feathering in an emergency situation. Subsequent disassembly of the propeller showed the it to be unfeathered, and analysis of it and the landing gear showed both were working perfectly. The owner's manual for the Cessna 411 states that "climb or continued level flight at a moderate altitude (with a left engine failure) is improbable with the landing gear extended or the propeller windmilling,".

Witnesses reported seeing the plane flying very low, about 500 feet and droping fast, and said it was consistantly wobbling, and banking steeply to the left. Some described it as being "on a knife-edge". It then dove into the ground, and came to rest on a construction site, where the right wing, being full of fuel, burst into flame. The left wing did not. The nose-fist impact destroyed the flight deck, instrument panel and the pilot, who was removed from the wreckage in a body bag.

Submitted on 03/10/2006

Submitted by: Iain Macdonald
Reference: NTSB Website

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
While not as spectacular as the episode where two mooks took a passenger plane to 41,000 feet and subsequently crashed, this has elements of stupidity I can appreciate. 412 hours is a LOT of flying time, and surely he should have known to at least do a thorough pre-flight. He didn't, and he flies with the angels now...thanks, Iain, rather entertaining! :-)

Sheryl said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
I like this one, Iain. If that pilot could do it wrong, he did.

Jorge said:
Neutral: Personal Account

Charles said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
Enough mistakes in a row here to make this a contender, I think.

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