Cessna 421 Golden Eagle

Anyway, that's another story.

In early February 2024, the crew of a Cessna 421, this is a twin-engine aircraft, number N421CF, reported an unusual object while flying northbound near Jaxx.

The aircraft at about 23,000 feet.

The crew noticed an object.

I flew multi-engine.

I was flying a 421, Cessna 421 for a while.

Wow.

Nice.

What do you have for us?

Well, this one is the final report of a twin-engine, piston-powered Cessna 421, and I'm emphasizing piston-powered for a reason that will become clear in just a minute.

The aircraft was registered as November 2-8 Romeo Hotel, and it crashed on August 21st of this year, about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, shortly after taking off from Blytheville, Arkansas.

Both the 73-year-old pilot and the single passenger aboard were seriously injured and the aircraft was substantially damaged.

Local weather at the time, good VFR.

The NTSB determined a rather unusual probable cause on this one.

The Cessna 421 had been refueled at Bliesville with Jet A fuel instead of the required 100 low lead.

Contributing to the accident was the pilot's failure to verify that the twin-engine Cessna was properly fueled prior to departure.

I'm Tower on Radio Hangar.

Today, we're talking about a Cessna 421 crash that investigators traced directly to misfueling and a pre-flight that didn't catch it.

Two failures in sequence and a set of lessons that apply to every piston pilot flying today.

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