N7198D

On October 9, 1997, about 1220 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-18A-150, N7198D, registered to Seashore Advertising Corp., operating as a 14 CFR Part 91 positioning flight, crashed during a forced landing in the Gulf of Mexico, about 40 miles southwest of Key West, Florida. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The airplane sank and was destroyed. The commercial pilot was not injured. The flight originated from Cancun, Mexico, at an unknown time.

The pilot stated the weather was "good" most of the flight. He said he, "met some isolated showers...and I had to descend from 5,000 to 2,500 to maintain VFR conditions. I had to deviate my route 5 nautical miles...I had wind from the north of 45 mph for about 20 nautical miles...at 3 [hours] 45 [minutes] [after] take off I was 120 nautical miles to Key West my engine quit."

The pilot estimated that at the time his engine quit he should have had "2:30 [hours]" fuel in the left tank and "00.45 minutes" in the right tank. The pilot said he switched to the "right" tank and the engine started again. It soon stopped again and he switched back to the left tank. The pilot could not reach Miami Center directly by radio, so he relayed through another airplane. Miami radar identified his position as being 100 nautical miles from Key West. As he descended to ditch in the water the engine came on again and he was able to climb to 4,500 feet, but was not able to maintain altitude. He flew for about another 40 nautical miles until he saw a military airplane flying in circles and a freighter on the surface of the water. He ditched in the water, the freighter passed him by and the military airplane kept circling. He got into his raft, the airplane sank, and after 20 minutes in the raft the pilot was rescued by a United States Coast Guard aircraft at 1400, about 60 nautical miles from Key West. The airplane sank and was never recovered.

The winds at Key West about the time of the accident were from 080 degrees, at 9 knots, with gusts to 18 knots.