Fuel starvation
Fuel starvation and fuel exhaustion (sometimes referred to as fuel depletion) are problems that can affect internal combustion engines fuelled by either diesel, kerosene, petroleum or any other combustible liquid or gas. If no fuel is available for an engine to burn, it cannot function. All modes of transport powered by such engines can be affected by this problem, but the consequences are most significant when it occurs to aircraft in flight.
Fuel exhaustion
There are two main ways that an engine can run out of fuel:
Using all of the fuel. An engine can use all available fuel due to insufficient fuel being loaded for the planned journey or the journey time extended for too long (in the case of an aircraft, due to in-flight delays or problems). Incidents of this type involving aircraft include Air Canada Flight 143,Avianca Flight 52, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961.
Leaking. In some cases, the fuel tank or the supply piping to the engine leaks and fuel is lost. This can cause engines to starve. Cases of this nature involving aircraft include Air Transat Flight 236.