How Can a Sound Airplane Lose Power Despite Having Fuel Aboard?
The fatal 2024 training-flight crash near Ann Arbor highlights a concept that may be puzzling to nonpilots: a mechanically sound airplane can lose power even when there's available fuel on board.
The issue became central to the NTSB investigation into the June 10, 2024, Washtenaw County crash that killed flight instructor and former Dearborn High football star Kevin Kreger. The Dearborn chiropractor and Henry Ford College instructor was an aspiring commercial pilot. A student pilot was injured.
Unlike fuel exhaustion, which occurs when an aircraft completely runs out of aviation gas, fuel starvation happens when fuel is available but is not reaching the engine.
Many Piper training aircraft, including the Cherokee involved in the Washtenaw County crash, carry fuel in separate tanks in each wing and use a cockpit fuel selector to determine which tank feeds the engine. Unlike high-wing aircraft, such as Cessnas, low-wing planes often do not have a setting to draw fuel from both tanks simultaneously.
Piper's operating handbook says pilots must manage tank selection and verify that the selector is positioned on a tank containing fuel.
That process is so important that Piper's emergency checklist instructs pilots experiencing an in-flight power loss to switch the "Fuel selector ... to tank containing fuel" and to "check tank selector position to be sure it is on a tank containing fuel."
An airplane can therefore have fuel available in one wing while the engine is drawing from a dry tank. If the selector is not moved to the tank containing fuel, or is positioned incorrectly, the engine will stop.
In the Washtenaw County crash, investigators found usable fuel in the left tank after the accident and no mechanical anomalies, but the fuel selector was positioned between the "Left Tank" and "Off" positions, apparently preventing fuel from reaching the engine.
The NTSB concluded the airplane likely had operated on one tank long enough for that tank to become depleted and said the selector was likely moved inadvertently past the proper setting while pilots attempted to restore power.
The board has repeatedly warned pilots about fuel-selector errors. In a 2018 safety alert, the agency said selecting an empty tank or positioning a selector between tank settings can lead to fuel starvation and a total loss of engine power.
Between 2008 and 2018, the NTSB cited fuel-selector issues in more than 100 accidents, it said in the report.
The lesson is straightforward: having fuel aboard is not enough. The fuel must also be able to reach the engine, and a mispositioned fuel selector can turn a powered aircraft into a glider even when usable fuel remains in its tanks.
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