Haven't been able to find out alot of the particulars of this crash, but all walked away from it. The plane is owned by my neighbors son. He was going to Dutch Harbor and got into borderline VFR conditions and the Airport put him on hold to land some IFR planes and he had to circle. He figured he had 45 minutes of fuel left. I guess that turned into only 30 minutes of fuel. His engine quit and he couldn't make the runway. Had a choice of water, trees or tundra. He opted for the tundra. The gear collapsed with a wing ripping ground loop. He said the plane it a total loss. Maybe partly due to where it is at?
Like I said, I haven't been able to see him personally yet, I was told this by a mutual friend.
He is a good pilot with most of his thousands of hours here in alaska. And he also flies KC135's for the Air Guard.

For me, when fuel<legal vfr reserves then "low fuel urgency" time. **** your IFR traffic and if you (tower) don't like it I'll declare an emergency. I'm not going to allow ATC to crash me.

I wonder if minimums were a problem even for a special?

I'd certainly wait and see what the young man has to say before firing up the peanut gallery about what happened/fuel starvation issues.

But... It'd be a cold day in Hell before ATC/tower/FSS kept me from landing once I declared an emergency because of fuel, weather issues (ice), or mechanical problems. As an experienced/pro pilot he should be well versed in his rights, and responsibilities. Be interesting to hear the whole story.

Gump

Fuel emergencies were discussed in the latest NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System Callback #367.
http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/publications/callback/cb_367.html

John R

I haven't seen reference to a PA-14 down at Dutch anywhere, but we did have a PA-14 go down outside of King Salmon, and all four walked away, July 16, 2010.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=c ... ing+salmon

Glad no one got hurt. Too bad the PA 14 is a loss. They are my favorite of the high wing Pipers and are pretty rare. The weather in Dutch is always sketchy. Both times I have been there I had to spend an additional day waiting for the weather to brake. Not too many bush planes were there either.

My bust! It was King Salmon not Dutch. I'm really glad all were OK. I know Doug. I rent my runway from his mom. Well.....I did. She is being forced off her property by the Alaska Railroad and I lost my beautiful grass strip
I was told I have until Freeze-up to move my plane.

PA-14 is a great airplane...sorry to hear about its loss. Running out of fuel????Damn!!