Fuel starvation involving a Beech Aircraft Corp C23, VH-ARF, 33 km west-north-west of Moss Vale, New South Wales, on 3 September 1994

The pilot had planned to carry out a short cross-country flight from Wedderburn via Goulburn, Taralga and Mittagong before returning to Wedderburn. He said that he had owned the aircraft for about eight years and was very familiar with its operation. On the morning of the flight, he measured the fuel contents of the left and right fuel tanks using a wooden dipstick and found that each tank contained 92 litres of AVGAS. From his experience, the normal fuel consumption was 37 litres/hr.

The flight to Taralga was uneventful in clear but turbulent weather conditions. However, as the aircraft tracked towards Mittagong the engine suddenly lost complete power. About one minute earlier the pilot said he had detected a slight amount of rough running and had used carburettor heat for about 30 seconds, without any change being noticed. When the engine lost power he was at a height of about 1500 feet above ground level. Despite changing fuel tanks, and turning the fuel boost pump on, power was unable to be restored. Due to limited height the pilot had to attempt a forced landing onto a steeply sloping field with rocky outcrops. Shortly after touching down the landing gear struck an outcrop and was torn off, stopping the aircraft from continuing into a valley. Both the pilot and his passenger were unharmed.

Although the total flight time had been about 61 minutes the left fuel tank was subsequently found to have been empty at the time of the accident. The engine was later able to be started and run. The pilot was unable to account for the apparent loss of fuel.