Published: November 05, 2009 09:37 pm      

Pilot error cause of KR crash

By TESA CULLI

tesa.culli@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — The pilot of a Linke KR-2 that crashed in a bean field on Sept. 17 behind the Industrial Park off Illinois Route 37 describes the cause of the accident as, “plain old simple pilot error.”

The crash, which happened about 7:15 p.m. in the evening of Sept. 17, came when the owner of the plane, Roger Bulla, 56, of Grand Junction, Colo., was on the last leg of his journey to Mt. Vernon Outland Airport for the 6th Annual KR Gathering.

“During the flight, I noticed that my fuel indicating rod had stuck in the full position,” Bulla said in his official accident report made to the National Traffic Safety Board. “This is not unusual and has always dropped and started indicating actual fuel levels before a half tank is used. This time it did not stop but remained in the full position.

“I ran some calculations in my mind to get a feel for how much fuel remained and decided to continue to MVN. At three hours into the flight, I had called MVN-Unicom for an airport advisory and indicated I would make a straight in to Runway 05. Winds were reported as calm.

“As I headed for Runway 05 at 1.5 miles out, my engine quit due to lack of fuel. I called Unicom again and declared an emergency and advised I would be making an off-field landing. I tried a restart and got the engine to run another 5 to 10 seconds before it stopped again and would not restart.

“I picked a bean field to make a forced landing, but the field was ringed with trees. I clipped the tops of the trees on approach and nosed into the ground just clear of the trees.”

Bulla’s report was substantiated by witnesses to the crash, who reported the engine of the plane was not running when it went down. Witnesses saw the aircraft go over the southern portion of the city from the west, circle around the field and go down.

“I completely miscalculated the fuel burn during the flight and failed to make a precautionary landing when my fuel gauge stuck in the full position,” Bulla said. “This was completely avoidable if I had made better decisions during the last leg of my flight. I should not have continued when the fuel gauge stuck. As is often the case, plain old simple pilot error.”