Report: Lack of fuel caused plane to crash in 2013

IDAHO FALLS (AP) - Federal officials said a private plane that crashed near an eastern Idaho airport in 2013 had run out of fuel.

The Post Register reported the National Transportation Safety Board released a report earlier this year saying investigators found no fuel in either of the plane's main tanks. They also found that the nacelle tanks -located behind the engine on each side of the plane- were tapped dry.

The crash injured Damond Watkins, vice president of corporate relations of Melaleuca - a company that sells health care products. Watkins suffered a broken back that required surgery to insert a metal cage around his shattered vertebrae.

The plane - a Beech C90-A twin-turboprop - fell out of the sky nearly a mile shy of the runway, hit an irrigation ditch then bounced before stopping in a field.

Watkin's attorney Alan W. Mortensen, based in Salt Lake City, says the pilot and the company that owns the plane "took a calculated risk that they had enough fuel to get back to the Idaho Falls airport."

However, the two-year time span to complete the report has been frustrating.

"It's going on two years," Mortensen said. "We have asked to participate and we have asked to be informed. Those requests have been rejected."

Mortensen added that the plane did not have a system that could adequately warn the pilot when it was low on fuel.

According to the report, pilot Bradley Hone told investigators a warning light had come on while he was approaching the Idaho Falls airport and he thought that it was fuel related.

"(There) was obviously some malfunction somewhere," he said.

The report also mentions that the investigators' four requests for information on the plane's fuel availability went unanswered.

"Although requested by the investigation, the pilot did not specifically report how much fuel was in each main tank, either before or after the addition of the fuel at IDA (Idaho Falls Regional Airport) and BOI (Boise Airport). The pilot's only statement regarding the fuel quantity in the main tanks was that 'the wing tanks had about 30 minutes worth of fuel' prior to the initial upload at IDA, but he did not provide the basis for that assertion," the report said.

The report added that Hone did not provide any information about the plane's fuel quantity when it stopped in Pocatello to finish the last leg of the trip to Idaho Falls.