BFO94FA112 · Beech 24R
Beech 24R · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Lawrence Municipal Airport (LWM) to Nantucket Memorial Airport (ACK)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO94FA112
- 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 24R
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 24
- 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
- N9258S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lawrence Municipal Airport (LWM), Lawrence, MATo Nantucket Memorial Airport (ACK), Nantucket, MA
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
- Terrain condition › None suitable
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Nantucket, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE TO THE DESTINATION, THE PILOT ADVISED ATC THAT THE AIRPLANE ENGINE HAD LOST POWER, HE WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE AND WAS DITCHING THE AIRPLANE. INITIAL ATTEMPTS TO LOCATE THE WRECKAGE AND RESCUE THE PILOT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. THERE WAS NO SURVIVAL EQUIPMENT ON BOARD THE AIRPLANE. THE AIRPLANE WAS RECOVERED MORE THAN ONE MONTH AFTER THE ACCIDENT. POSTACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION. THE MOST RECENT KNOWN REFUELING OCCURRED THE DAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT, WHEN THE AIRPLANE WAS REPORTEDLY FUELED 'TO THE TABS.' THIS FUEL LOAD EQUALS 15 GALLONS PER SIDE (30 GALLONS TOTAL), OF WHICH 22.4 GALLONS IS CONSIDERED USEABLE FUEL. AFTER BEING FUELED, THE AIRPLANE WAS FLOWN FROM NANTUCKET TO LAWRENCE, AND WAS RETURNING TO NANTUCKET WHEN THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED. THE FUEL TANKS WERE COMPROMISED DURING IMPACT.
Probable cause
the total loss of engine power over unsuitable terrain, for undetermined reasons. The pilot's failure to ensure that proper survival equipment was onboard the airplane was a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO94FA112
- Event ID
- 20001206X01449
- Case number
- BFO94FA112
- 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: 979417ae3b92d33c126ff313be810fb860eb673102bc88596932b9c156d2125c; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:08:13.819Z.