Plane Crashes Due To Running Out of Gas

Posted by rozeklawoffice on January 14, 2010 under General | Be the First to Comment

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, in the past five years,  fuel exhaustion was the cause or a factor in 238 small plane crashes in the U.S., killing 29 people.

From 2004 to 2008, there were 8,016 crashes of civilian planes. Pilot error is blamed in about 75% of those crashes, which killed 2,640 people on board.

Although only 238 small planes crashed because they ran out of gas, aviation experts still argue it shouldn’t happen at all since it is easily prevented.

When planes run out of fuel, the NTSB usually points to mistakes by pilots — inadequate preflight inspections, mistaken fuel planning or not checking the fuel caps.

The majority of civilian planes flying date to the 1960s and 1970s and aren’t equipped with fuel warning signals.

Pilots also sometimes take off with less than full fuel tanks because baggage and passengers would otherwise push planes beyond weight limits.

Awareness efforts, combined with better technology, such as low-fuel warning lights on newer planes, seems to be helping to slowly decrease the amount of crashes due to running out of gas.

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