NTSB: Nowata County Plane Crash Caused By Fuel Exhaustion

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol identified the pilot as Paul Woolard, 50, and his passengers as 54-year-old Randy Watson and 25-year-old Ryan Bozeman. All three men were from Alabama. All three survived, though each received serious injuries.

The NTSB released its Probable Cause report on the crash on Monday. It blames the crash on the the pilot's "inadequate preflight inspection and planning and inflight fuel management, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion."

Read the NTSB's Probable Cause report.

According to the report, the single-engine plane had taken off from Washington County Memorial Airport in Washington, Kansas at 12:07 p.m. on April 27, 2014 en route to Shawnee, Oklahoma. The investigator said the pilot decided to divert to Claremore, Oklahoma for fuel because of a strong headwind when the engine quit.

According to the report, the airplane flew for one hour and 18 minutes using fuel in the left wing tank. The pilot then switched to the right wing tank, the NTSB said. 

The investigator said the airplane likely had minimal fuel in the right wing fuel tank and when the pilot switched to it during the flight the engine likely lost power because the engine was out of fuel.

The pilot told investigators he had 20 gallons of fuel in each wing tank when he took off, but the NTSB found no fuel in the left wing tank. The right wing tank was damaged in the crash, but the NTSB said there were no fuel stains on the ground and no odor of fuel around it.