Accident to the Cessna 182 registered D-ELXC on 19/07/2024 near Vichy-Charmeil AD

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Before undertaking the two planned skydiving flights, the pilot refuelled the aircraft. He had approximately 55 l of fuel in each of the two tanks. This quantity, given the standard consumption of 25 l per flight, meant that it was possible to carry out two rotations per tank. The pilot then started up the engine, embarked the skydivers and took off. During the descent following the second jump, the engine shut down.

Given:
• the large amount of fuel in the left-hand tank after the accident, according to the rescue services,
• the characteristic lean air/fuel mixture signature observed in the data recorded before the engine shut down,
• the flight time consistent with the amount of fuel in only one of the tanks,
• the company procedures and the pilot's habits, which involved refuelling by pre-selecting one of the tanks,
it is probable that the fuel selector was set to the right-hand tank from take-off and remained in that position during both flights. The pilot omitted to verify that the fuel selector was in the "Both" position and completed both flights with the selector set to the right-hand tank, without realizing it, due to the lack of regular checks of the selector's position.

The engine then shut down during the descent due to a lack of fuel after consuming all the fuel in the right-hand tank. At the end of the downwind leg, still descending, when the pilot wanted to readjust engine power, he realized the engine was no longer delivering power. He checked the positions of the magneto and mixture controls, but not the fuel selector. Given the altitude, the pilot decided to make an emergency landing in a field.

During the landing, the pilot carried out a left-hand sidestep to avoid flying over a house at a very low height. The left-hand wing struck a tree, destabilizing the aeroplane, which then touched down hard. During the run on the soft ground, the aeroplane performed a ground loop, and the right-hand wing tip struck the tree in front of which the aeroplane had stopped.

BEA is the French air safety investigation authority for civil aviation. The sole objective of the investigation is to improve air safety. It is intended neither to apportion blame nor to assess responsiblity.