[sirshackleton]

"He had to be a good pilot. He didn't lose control,"

Yeah, but it sounds like a he did a lousy pre-flight.

[Flightdeck]

No kidding. You check the tanks at least twice: once by peering down the hole, once by the gauges, before taking off. And if he was doing a cross-country, you have to calculate it, also. Maybe the wind picked up big-time after he took off.