Preliminary Report Says Plane Ran Out of Fuel

Federal investigators released an initial report this morning finding that the small plane that crashed in Newport Beach in November and killed three men ran out of fuel minutes before it crashed.

"No fuel was found in the main fuel line to the carburetor or in the wing tanks, which contained ounces of water," Wayne Pollack, the National Transportation Safety Board investigator assigned to the case, wrote in the report. "Several ounces of fuel were found in the carburetor bowl and in the accelerator pump assembly."

Charles A. Chambers, 58, of Redondo Beach, was the pilot of the plane—which was traveling from Mexico to Torrance—when it crashed Nov. 21. Also aboard were Russell Urban, 63, of Palos Verdes Estates, and Sean Kelly, 44, of Hermosa Beach. Autopsies ruled that the men drowned after the plane landed upside down in the shallow water of Upper Newport Bay.

According to the report, the pilot's wife said her husband called the morning of the crash and said he was getting fuel before departing from San Felipe International Airport. After leaving the airport, Chambers landed at the Calexico International Airport and planned to fly to Zamperini Field Airport in Torrance, she said.

According to the report, a fuel lineman in Calexico pumped 20 gallons of fuel into the plane's right wing fuel tank.

"He was not instructed to top off the tank. The lineman opined that adding exactly 20 gallons of fuel to the right wing tank did not result in it being completely filled to the brim of the filler neck," Pollack said.

The lineman also told investigators he was not instructed by the pilot to add any fuel to the left wing tank, but he did not know the amount of fuel that was in that tank. 

The Newport Beach Fire Department received an emergency call at 5:46 p.m. that Sunday about a single-engine Beechcraft Musketeer having trouble near Back Bay Drive and San Joaquin Hills Road.

Federal Aviation Administration officials reported that the pilot first communicated with an air traffic controller when he was about 10 miles southeast of John Wayne Airport. The NTSB's review of the recorded radio transmissions indicated that seconds after, the pilot informed the air traffic controller twice that "we have just run out of fuel,"  the report stated.

While the small plane was descending, the pilot told the controller that he would try to reach the airport and "see how close he could get."

However, the plane experienced a total loss of engine power as it approached the airport. 

"During the pilot's subsequent forced landing, the airplane descended into estimated 3-feet-deep water, nosed over and was substantially damaged," Pollack said.

Firefighters and police responded to the scene and found the plane upside down in the water. Rescuers jumped into the muddy water and attempted to rescue the men, but they were already dead.

Read our initial story of the plane crash here.