NEWS: Plane in fatal crash may have run out of fuel BY LAUREL BLACK lblack@paducahsun Investigation into the small plane crash that killed four Illinois residents Friday night in Lyon County is still in its infancy, but some aviation professionals say theres good reason to believe the Piper Seneca may have run out of fuel. Keith Holloway, a spokesman with the National Transportation Safety Board, said it will take time for investigators findings to make it to the public, and that all scenarios for the crash are still on the table. But some scenarios are more likely than others when dealing with small aircraft like the Piper PA-34 that Marty Gutzler, a very experienced pilot, was flying that night. (The chance of) mechanical failure is very, very miniscule, said Terry Rogers, president at Aircenter 1, a flight training school in Louisville. Youd be surprised how many airplanes run out of gas. Gutzlers twin-engine plane, which was headed for Mount Vernon, Illinois, from Key West, Florida, had stopped at the Tallahassee Regional Airport to refuel. Its not been reported whether the plane left with a full tank, but because it was carrying five passengers and luggage, it may have taken on less fuel to maintain the necessary weight balance. The plane reported engine trouble over western Kentucky and lost contact with air traffic controllers just before 6 p.m. Friday. The pilot told air traffic controllers he was diverting to the Kentucky Dam State (Park) Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. The plane crashed about 10 miles from that airport. Any time youre flying and youre having engine problems, you have to think about fuel, said Michael Burgener, department chairman for aviation technology at Southern Illinois University. These engines are fairly reliable. He added that small planes are sometimes serviced accidentally with jet fuel instead of gasoline, which can bring down an aircraft quickly. Icing on the planes wings or inside a carburetor is also a possibility, and temperatures on the ground didnt reach 40 that evening. But pilots are trained to recognize those types of things, so that would probably be less likely than the fuel, Bergener said. Bergener and Rogers emphasized they didnt have enough information to confidently speculate on the specific cause of the crash, which killed four members of the Gutzler family - Marty, 48, Kimberly, 46, and Piper, 9 - and Sierra Wilder, 14, a cousin. Investigators with the NTSB have said that the recollections of lone survivor Sailor Gutzler, 7, will be helpful as they explore what went wrong on Friday. Theyre very good at what they do, and theyre very cautious, Rogers said of the investigators, adding that some crashes can take months or years to unravel. The bottom line of their investigation is to prevent it from happening again. Holloway said a preliminary report from the NTSB will likely be available later this week or early next week. We make progress every day, but we dont have information to release every day, he said. Its still early, and we havent ruled anything out yet. Contact Laurel Black, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8641, or follow @LaurelFBlack on Twitter.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 03:58:52 +0000
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