CHI94LA254 · Beech 33
Beech 33 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From 1C2 · NEW LENNOX, IL to Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA254
- 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
- 0 · 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 33
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 33
- 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
- N7960M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 1C2 · NEW LENNOX, ILTo Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT)
- 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 · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Wichita, KS, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT ENTERED THE AIRPORT TRAFFIC PATTERN IN PREPARATION FOR LANDING. WHILE ON THE DOWNWIND LEG, THE AIRPLANE LOST ALL ENGINE POWER. THE PILOT STATED HE IMMEDIATELY SWITCHED THE SELECTED FUEL TANK AND TURNED THE BOOST PUMP ON. THE ENGINE RESTARTED AND RAN FOR APPROXIMATELY THREE SECONDS. THE PILOT SWITCHED THE SELECTED FUEL TANK AGAIN AND TRIED TO RESTART WITHOUT SUCCESS. THE PILOT MADE A FORCED LANDING ON AN ADJACENT FIELD. POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION REVEALED NO FUEL IN THE LEFT TANK AND APPROXIMATELY 20 GALLONS IN THE RIGHT. THE FUEL SELECTOR HANDLE WAS FOUND 1/4 TO 1/8 ROTATION OUT OF THE RIGHT FUEL TANK SELECTION DETENT. AN ENGINE TEST RUN WAS PREFORMED. THE ENGINE STARTED IMMEDIATELY AND RAN UP TO 2750 RPM WITHOUT INCIDENT.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate management of the fuel which resulted in fuel starvation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA254
- Event ID
- 20001206X01720
- Case number
- CHI94LA254
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-08-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7856b1709a591b354ca4c0d52d90a9d954cad9314c2885417d0e8484f4e899c6; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:44:03.719Z.