Pilot's Deadly Mistakes Get Wife & Children Killed!
Pilot Debrief
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On a March night in 2024, a Piper Turbo Lance carrying a family of five approached a Nashville airport at the end of a long cross-country from Ontario, Canada. A single fuel selector out of position ended the flight two miles short of the runway.
The private pilot was flying his wife and children home on a VFR cross-country from Ontario to John C. Tune Airport near Nashville, Tennessee. Night visual conditions prevailed as he descended out of 10,500 feet, worked through Class C airspace, and was cleared to land on runway 20 under Part 91.
The approach didn't stabilize. One mile from the runway the airplane was still around 2,400 feet, and the pilot told the tower he wanted to overfly the field at 2,500 feet and come back around. Residential cameras captured the engine running at nearly full power during the overflight — until the sound turned abnormal, with several distinct popping noises before it went silent.
South of the airport, the pilot reported his engine had "turned off" and that he'd be landing but didn't know where. The controller declared an emergency and repeatedly cleared him for runway 2, but the pilot was too far to glide there. The airplane struck terrain next to an interstate two nautical miles south of the field, followed by a significant post-impact fire. All five aboard were killed.
Postaccident examination found no mechanical fault in the airframe or engine. The fuel selector, however, was resting between the OFF and LEFT MAIN positions — a setting that starves the engine of fuel. The NTSB determined the accident was caused by the pilot's failure to ensure proper placement of the fuel selector during the approach and landing, resulting in fuel starvation and a total loss of engine power. The first line of the manufacturer's approach and landing checklist read simply: "Fuel Selector — Proper Tank."
The pattern here is a familiar one: a routine checklist item, moved in the busy moments before landing but never fully seated, quietly cut the fuel flow below what the engine needed. By the time power was lost, there wasn't enough altitude left to reach the runway.
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SOURCES
NTSB Accident ID: ERA24FA127
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ABOUT PILOT DEBRIEF
Pilot Debrief is hosted by Hoover, a retired F-15E pilot and current pilot for a major U.S. airline. Every video on this channel analyzes publicly released NTSB final reports, factual narratives, CVR/FDR transcripts, and docket evidence to extract practical safety lessons for general aviation pilots. We do not speculate beyond the evidence. We do not blame pilots for being human. We debrief the decisions and the systems, not the people.
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Sponsorships and brand partnerships: pilotdebrief@outloudtalent.com
#PilotDebrief #NTSB #FuelStarvation #GeneralAviation #AviationSafety
20 Comments
“KEEP FLYING THE AIRPLANE!”
🙏🏼
Something about this. A pilot in the air with him knows how serious this is. You can hear the sincerity in his voice. He wants this guy to make it and knows he needs to cut through everything to remind this Ill fated pilot to AVIATE. Equal parts endearing and haunting. The aviation community is just that: a community.
Also, at 13:47, that photo is accurate. There's an absolutely huge landfill, gun range, and floodplain on the last couple miles on the approach. It would be totally dark as you overflew all that. What it doesn't show is the three very tall towers not far off the approach. I believe that Victor would have studied the approach in the time that he had because the path he took would have brought him very near those towers, and staying high for extra clearance at night in an unfamiliar area would have been an excellent idea.
Pilot's Deadly Mistakes Get Wife & Children Killed!
Pilot Debrief
1,056,373 views
🔒 Get 20% off DeleteMe by going to https://joindeleteme.com/DEBRIEF and use code DEBRIEF to protect your privacy! 🙌
On a March night in 2024, a Piper Turbo Lance carrying a family of five approached a Nashville airport at the end of a long cross-country from Ontario, Canada. A single fuel selector out of position ended the flight two miles short of the runway.
The private pilot was flying his wife and children home on a VFR cross-country from Ontario to John C. Tune Airport near Nashville, Tennessee. Night visual conditions prevailed as he descended out of 10,500 feet, worked through Class C airspace, and was cleared to land on runway 20 under Part 91.
The approach didn't stabilize. One mile from the runway the airplane was still around 2,400 feet, and the pilot told the tower he wanted to overfly the field at 2,500 feet and come back around. Residential cameras captured the engine running at nearly full power during the overflight — until the sound turned abnormal, with several distinct popping noises before it went silent.
South of the airport, the pilot reported his engine had "turned off" and that he'd be landing but didn't know where. The controller declared an emergency and repeatedly cleared him for runway 2, but the pilot was too far to glide there. The airplane struck terrain next to an interstate two nautical miles south of the field, followed by a significant post-impact fire. All five aboard were killed.
Postaccident examination found no mechanical fault in the airframe or engine. The fuel selector, however, was resting between the OFF and LEFT MAIN positions — a setting that starves the engine of fuel. The NTSB determined the accident was caused by the pilot's failure to ensure proper placement of the fuel selector during the approach and landing, resulting in fuel starvation and a total loss of engine power. The first line of the manufacturer's approach and landing checklist read simply: "Fuel Selector — Proper Tank."
The pattern here is a familiar one: a routine checklist item, moved in the busy moments before landing but never fully seated, quietly cut the fuel flow below what the engine needed. By the time power was lost, there wasn't enough altitude left to reach the runway.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
JOIN THE DEBRIEF CREW ON PATREON
Ad-free videos and exclusive analysis
From $5/month: Patreon: pilotdebrief
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SOURCES
NTSB Accident ID: ERA24FA127
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ABOUT PILOT DEBRIEF
Pilot Debrief is hosted by Hoover, a retired F-15E pilot and current pilot for a major U.S. airline. Every video on this channel analyzes publicly released NTSB final reports, factual narratives, CVR/FDR transcripts, and docket evidence to extract practical safety lessons for general aviation pilots. We do not speculate beyond the evidence. We do not blame pilots for being human. We debrief the decisions and the systems, not the people.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sponsorships and brand partnerships: pilotdebrief@outloudtalent.com
#PilotDebrief #NTSB #FuelStarvation #GeneralAviation #AviationSafety