NTSB: Fuel tanks were half full when plane’s engines lost power off Kona
COURTESY U.S. COAST GUARD
Coast Guard crews safely delivered David McMahon and Sydnie Uemoto to emergency medical personnel in Kailua-Kona, July 15, following their rescue nine miles off Kona. They were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews.
The pilots of the rented twin-engine Piper Apache reported the fuel tanks were half full when the right engine stopped, followed a few minutes later by the left engine, forcing a ditching in the ocean off Kona last month, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The preliminary NTSB report, released last week, said pilots David McMahon, 26, of Kailua, and Sydnie Uemoto, 24, of Kona, on July 14 were cruising at 5,500 feet when both engines began to run rough.
They descended to 3,500 feet, and the engines seemed to smooth out a bit.
Then the right engine stopped producing power, followed within a few minutes by the left engine, the report said. The pilots reported that the fuel gauges were showing half full.
The pilots reported engine trouble shortly before 3:15 p.m. and lost radio contact with the airport control tower before ditching the plane, the Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration reported. Their last known location before disappearing from the radar was 25 miles northwest of Kona Airport.
After spending a night in the ocean, two off-duty commercial pilots with Mokulele Airlines were found July 15 trying to swim the last mile and a half to shore.
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Both pilots sustained minor injuries.
The airplane sank, and was not recovered.
The flight had left John Rodgers Airport at Kapolei and was en route to Kona International Airport.
A tour helicopter pilot spotted the debris and the survivors 1 1/2 miles offshore, 6 miles northwest of Kona Airport. That pilot contacted a nearby Coast Guard helicopter, which remained on scene until another Coast Guard helicopter with hoisting capabilities arrived, hoisted up the pair and flew them to the Kona Airport, where they were treated for minor injuries.
Private tour helicopters, the Navy, a New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion plane participating in the Rim of the Pacific military exercises, and the Hawaii County Fire Department participated in the search.
11 responses to “NTSB: Fuel tanks were half full when plane’s engines lost power off Kona”
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What kind of Coast Guard helicopters do not have “hoisting capabilities”? This taxpayer needs to know. I was a hoist operator in Jolly Green Giant helicopters and we always had a hoist! If the hoist was not usable we used what C & C Honolulu helicopters have used: a ROPE. Or we could join cargo straps together to make a “rope”. Lives matter.
The HH-3E “Jolly” was the last military helicopter designed to land on water. No hoist needed! Our government dumped these great machines for “more-capable helicopters”.
The USCG earlier explained this.
Two MH-65 Dolphin aircraft were involved in the rescue and both have hoisting capability. The first Dolphin on scene was not on a normal patrol and did not have a rescue swimmer on board. Protocols do not permit hoisting without having a rescue swimmer in the water to insure proper positioning of the victim(s) in the basket. The first Dolphin vectored the second aircraft (with a rescue swimmer in the crew) into position for the rescue.
YEAH!!! This TAXPAYER needs to know, too!! 🙂
seems the powers that be sometimes practice the art of reverse logic.
If anybody remembers how John Denver died–he was flying an airplane he wanted to buy and ran out of fuel over the ocean in CA. Just like this incident (I presume) the pilot didn’t know how to transfer from one tank to the other.
Maybe we should wait until the final incident report is published.
Agree!
He died because the fuel line was still turned off. By a strange coincidence I was in Monterey when it happened. People there were so cold and couldn’t care less. Surprised me. Bus driver, shop owner, and evening sidewalk sellers so snotty. Even the Mexican peon yelled at me when I tried to help carry my luggage into the bus storage bay. I laughed at the uneducated taxi driver who got frustrated I refused to tip.
Evidently Av gas isn’t as good as it used to be. Isn’t it past time to switch general aviation over to far safer turboprops and Jet A fuel?
Turboprops are hella expensive compared with pistons. As long as there’s general aviation, there will be piston engines. Can’t fault general aviation for a batch of bad gas.
So you know it was bad gas? The pilots said the fuel gauges were showing 1/2 full, really hope they weren’t relying on the gauges. You never rely on fuel gauges in that kind of airplane. You need to know how much is on board by topping off, sticking the tanks or some other method where you know exactly how much you have. You then calculate fuel burn to know how much flight time you have.