Salt Lake City, UT, USA
N7873U
Cessna 172F
The airplane's engine lost power approximately 2 miles southwest of the intended destination. The pilot said they turned west to avoid houses and power lines. "The sun was in our eyes and we could only look down." The pilot reported spotting a vacant road on which they planned to land. The pilot said she had to turn east to see what was on the road before they landed. The pilot said that turning resulted in a loss of airspeed, such that they landed in a field 50 feet from the road. "When we got close enough to land is when we noticed it was a plowed field." The pilot said the airplane touched down on the main gear, but when the nose gear touched, it "plowed into the field," and the airplane nosed over. An examination of the airplane revealed no fuel present. No other anomalies were found.
On June 11, 2002, approximately 2030 mountain daylight time, a Cessna 172F, N7873U, piloted by a private pilot, was substantially damaged when the airplane nosed over during a forced landing, 2 miles southwest of the Salt Lake City 2 Municipal Airport, Salt Lake City, Utah. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The personal flight was being conducted under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 91 without a flight plan. The pilot and passenger on board the airplane reported no injuries. The cross-country flight originated at Hurricane, Utah, at 1830, and was en route to Salt Lake City. The pilot reported, "About 2 miles from Salt Lake #2 the engine quit, I turned west to stay away from the houses and power lines. The sun was in our eyes and we could only look down. We spotted a vacant road and I had to turn east to see what was on the road before we landed." The pilot said that turning resulted in a loss of airspeed, such that they landed in a field 50 feet from the road. "When we got close enough to land is when we noticed it was a plowed field." The pilot said the airplane touched down on the main gear, but when the nose gear touched, it "plowed into the field," and the airplane nosed over. An examination of the airplane revealed the airplane's vertical stabilizer and rudder were crushed downward. The rear spar of the right wing was bent. The right wing strut was buckled. Flight control continuity was confirmed. No anomalies were found with the engine, engine controls, or other airplane systems. An examination of the fuel tanks revealed no fuel present. There were no other indicators of fuel at the accident site. The pilot said that they logged 2.2 hours on their flight to Hurricane. The pilot figured the return trip would take 2 hours to complete. The pilot said that they had planned to "stop at Fillmore for fuel," but the runway was closed. The pilot said they called other airports, but got not response. "When we took off I was on the left tank so I ran the left tank until empty and was figuring how long it would run on empty, it ran 25 minutes. We were between Fillmore and Nephi when we changed to the right tank. We thought about Provo but we would have to cross Utah Lake and the pattern was full of students. Our gas gage (gauge) said we had a quarter of a tank and we had 65 miles to go, so we continued."
the pilot's improper in-flight planning and decisions, which resulted in fuel exhaustion. A factor contributing to the accident was the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database
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