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IAD99FA034 · Beech BE-76

15 Mar 1999 · Dravosburg, PA, United States

Beech BE-76 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach

From 4A7 · Hampton, GA to Allegheny County Airport (AGC)

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Event

NTSB case
IAD99FA034
Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
Completed
API-reported fatalities
2 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
0
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
General aviation
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Visual Meteorological Cond

Beech BE-76

Aircraft type
Beechcraft BE-76
Category
Airplane
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
N6638C
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From 4A7 · Hampton, GATo Allegheny County Airport (AGC)
Aircraft age
Not recorded
Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
Part 91: General Aviation
Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
Approach
First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Wire, static; Tree(s)
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

After the pilot flew 4 hours and 37 minutes he reported the airport insight, and was cleared to land. The airplane then crashed 1 1/2 miles from the runway. No pre impact failures or malfunctions were identified. No fuel was found in the right engine fuel lines, and a few drops from the left. The airplane departed with 100 gallons of useable fuel, and flew at 9,000 feet msl with the cabin heater on. The airplane's gross weight at take off was approximately 4,337 pounds. The maximum gross weight at takeoff was published as 3,900 pounds. Fuel endurance at 9,000 feet pressure altitude was published as approximately 4 hours and 25 minutes with 2,500 engine rpm. Fuel consumption for the heater was listed as 2/3 gallons per hour. On a prior flight, the pilot landed the accident airplane with 2 gallons of usable fuel onboard.

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to accurately calculate fuel required for the flight, and his decision not to divert for fuel prior to his intended destination. A factor in the accident was the pilot's over confidence in his ability to operate the airplane with minimal fuel onboard.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record IAD99FA034
Event ID
20001205X00331
Case number
IAD99FA034
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
  • Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
  • Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: aa9b1e07d2bad5139c22b197e72b58e81bcc4131910823b6e6eeef6ef61527fc; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:12:46.839Z.