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Full gas tanks could stop many small plane crashes

Posted on November 30, 2009 at 2:02 AM

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Aviation officials say there's a simple way to prevent hundreds of small plane crashes: fill up the gas tank.

The National Transportation Safety Board says running out of fuel has been a cause or factor in 238 small plane crashes in the past five years.

Those crashes have killed 29 people.

The NTSB says there were 8,016 crashes of civilian planes from 2004 through 2008. That category excludes commercial flights and military aviation.

Pilot error is blamed in about 75 percent of those crashes, which killed 2,640 people on board.

Tom Haueter (HOW'-der) is director of the NTSB's Office of Aviation Safety. He says while continuing to fly into bad weather is a common error, running out of gas is also "way at the top."

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On the Net:

National Transportation Safety Board: http://www.ntsb.gov/

Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association: http://www.aopa.org/

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anonymoususer said on November 29, 2009 at 11:54 AM

Sometimes because of weight and balance, it would be more dangerous to fill up the tanks. It should be done whenever possible although pilots are also killed when there are weight and balance / density altitude that prohibits carrying full fuel and they fill up the tanks anyway.

hosco6 said on November 29, 2009 at 7:52 PM

This is a perfect example of a simpleton with no knowledge or understanding of a complex subject analyzing information at hand and arriving at an idiotic conclusion. The difference with this one is, THE WRITER ACTUALLY PUBLISHED IT. Fortunately, pilots will refuse to explain why it is such a dumb idea, because anyone capable of flying an airplane has enough sense not to waste time talking to a MORON.