DA62 road landing in Dallas, Texas

[Chris]

Reported engine trouble... Not sure if that means one or both engines, although I'd have expected an on-airport landing if only one had failed since they were already near an airport. Nobody injured but some damage to the aircraft.

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2022/10/d ... urred.html

Previously registered to a forum member but I'm not sure if the current owner is on here.

[yl472401]

following... Would be interested to know the rational for forced landing with a single engine failure as the whole purpose of the extra engine is to make sure you don't land on the highway. AND this is a DA62!

[Chris]

There's a lot of spéculation on BeechTalk and some on Kathryn's Report about it either being fuel exhaustion or total electrical systems failure. I.e. no reliable information at this point.

The plane flew for over an hour before the accident occurred while coming in for landing. The ATC recording (starts around 17:25) doesn't have much other than a check in with tower before going silent.

[Boatguy]

Fuel exhaustion is the easiest explanation for failure of both engines. The TO climb to cruise was oddly shallow, climbing a little slower than a 40NG. Earlier flights that week had a typical DA62 climb profile. Was the pilot trying to conserve fuel?

Total electrical failure provides about 30min from the main battery and another 30 from the ECU backup batteries. Standby instruments have their own battery.

If the cabling to/from both ECU's was compromised in some way, that would explain a dual engine failure.

[bdbogle]

Fuel exhaustion is the easiest explanation for failure of both engines. The TO climb to cruise was oddly shallow, climbing a little slower than a 40NG. Earlier flights that week had a typical DA62 climb profile. Was the pilot trying to conserve fuel?

Total electrical failure provides about 30min from the main battery and another 30 from the ECU backup batteries. Standby instruments have their own battery.

If the cabling to/from both ECU's was compromised in some way, that would explain a dual engine failure.

Or if something caused the high pressure fuel pumps to go offline as well. That'll definitely cause you to have both engine fail. But what are the odds of that?? Forgot to transfer fuel? As I understand it, Diamond is on the way to investigate it.

[photoSteveZ]

The props aren’t feathered, which means the latches were engaged when the engines stopped. The latches only engage at idle rpm or below (ask me how I know ).

Am I missing something, or does that not imply the engines were making at least some power, and were stopped on the ground after landing? I can’t imagine that both sets of latches failed to disengage at the same time during a double engine stoppage in flight.

[jast]

I’m happy that no one was hurt!

I think mis-fueling as mentioned in the comments under the report is highly unlikely since the low pressure fuel pump circulates several gallons per minute to the engine an back and therefore mis-fueled austros shouldn’t make it to the runway. At least that’s what I understood in my system training at Diamond…

[Soareyes]

Pure conjecture: jet fuel in the main tanks, avgas in the auxiliary tanks, accessed late in the flight?

[UTMark]

Pure conjecture: jet fuel in the main tanks, avgas in the auxiliary tanks, accessed late in the flight?

More conjecture: if it’s not avgas, could it be condensation buildup in his tanks if he isn’t flying often? He is down in Texas… #sump


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[Colin]

Looks like he flies pretty often so that seems unlikely.