fuel starvation

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Fuel starvation (also known as fuel exhaustion and fuel depletion) is a problem that predominantly affects petrol-fuelled internal combustion engines.

Main causes of fuel starvation

There are two main ways that an engine can run out of fuel.

Using up fuel. This is mainly the cause of fuel starvation. An engine can use up all available fuel. Once the fuel has been used, none is left so the engine starves itself. Some incidents include Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961.

Leaking. In some cases, the engine or fuel tank leaks and fuel is lost. This can cause engines to starve. Some cases include Air Transat Flight 236.

Many incidents have happened on aircraft where fuel starvation played a role. A partial list of these incidents follows.

In 1954, a Convair CV-240 aircraft operated by Swissair ran out of fuel over the English Channel near Folkestone. The plane ditched into the water killing 3 passengers. 3 crew members and 2 passengers were found alive after the crash.

A British Midland flight registered with the tail number G-ALHG ran out of fuel over Stockport, England in 1967. The Canadair C-4 Argonaut crashed and 72 of the 84 onboard died.

In a 1983 incident, Air Canada Flight 143 used up all available fuel and glided to Gimli Industrial Park Airport where the plane landed safely. The flight is now famously known as the Gimli Glider.

In 1990, Avianca Flight 52 was in an extended holding pattern over John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City due to fog. The Boeing 707-321B was delayed many times before it was given clearance to land. By then, Flight 52 had run out of fuel and crashed into Cove Neck, New York, killing 73.

In 1996, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked on a short flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. The plane was demanded to fly to Australia by the hijackers but the pilot tried to tell them that they didn't have enough fuel to fly there. After three hours of flying along the African coast, the engines starved and failed. An emergency landing at Grande Comore Island failed when the plane landed on the water just off the local beach, killing 125 people including the three hijackers.

Hapag-Lloyd Flight 3378 in 2000 did not have enough fuel to complete the flight to Munich. The pilots did not realise the problem when their landing gear failed to fully retract. Once the plane lost all fuel, the plane made an emergency landing at Vienna but landed short of the runway. There were no casualties.

In 2001, Air Transat Flight 236 suffered a fuel leak while crossing the Atlantic Ocean and lost its fuel. The plane glided safely to an air base in the Azores.

TAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 3084, a Fokker F-100, used up all of its fuel in 2002 and made an emergency landing in a field with its gear up, killing a cow grazing in the field. No-one onboard the aircraft was killed. On the same day, another similar TAM aircraft had the same fate and landed gear-up at Viracopos.

In 2004, a Convair CV-580 cargo flight Air Tahoma/DHL Flight 185 suffered fuel exhaustion and crashed, killing one of the pilots.

In 2005, Helios Airways Flight 522 was intercepted by fighter jets after failing to answer air traffic controllers in Greece. No pilots were in control of the plane, which eventually used up its fuel and crashed into a hill near Marathon, Greece. All onboard died. Although fuel starvation was the final cause of the crash, cabin depressurization is what disabled the flight crew, dooming the jetliner.