BFO95LA012 · Beech A23
Beech A23 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Indianapolis International Airport (IND) to Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (Lovell Field) (CHA)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO95LA012
- 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 A23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 23
- 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
- N3584R
- Operator
- Dianne M. Wolf MC Dowell
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Indianapolis International Airport (IND), Indianapolis, INTo Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (Lovell Field) (CHA), Chattanooga, TN
- 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
- 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
- Fuel tank selector position › Restricted
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, adjustment, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE IN CRUISE FLIGHT, 2 HOURS AFTER DEPARTURE, THE AIRPLANE ENGINE LOST TOTAL POWER AND AN OFF AIRPORT LANDING WAS MADE. POSTACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE FUEL SYSTEM REVEALED THE LEFT FUEL TANK CONTAINED USEABLE FUEL AND THE RIGHT FUEL TANK WAS EMPTY. NO FUEL LEAKS WERE NOTED. THE PILOT SAID THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS SELECTED TO THE LEFT TANK FOR THE ENTIRE FLIGHT. EXAMINATION OF THE FUEL SELECTOR ASSEMBLY REVEALED THE PIN THAT ALIGNS THE FUEL SELECTOR HANDLE WITH THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE WAS MISSING. THE FUEL SELECTOR HANDLE WAS OFFSET 90-DEGREES FROM THE VALVE. WHEN THE FUEL SELECTOR HANDLE WAS POSITIONED ON THE LEFT TANK, THE VALVE WAS POSITIONED ON THE RIGHT TANK. THE AIRPLANE HAD RECEIVED AN ANNUAL INSPECTION THREE DAYS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE MECHANIC SAID THAT HE ALIGNED THE VALVE AND HANDLE WITH THE PIN IN PLACE.
Probable cause
the mechanic's improper maintenance adjustment, which involved the misalignment of the fuel selector handle with the fuel selector valve. Related factors are the pilot's inadequate fuel management, and the rough/uneven terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO95LA012
- Event ID
- 20001206X02558
- Case number
- BFO95LA012
- 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: fe56d6fb8fe59132a6c2635dcaa2da8e77c8f70277fcececf9b5bfaf7545450c; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:27:24.325Z.