MIA95FA107 · Beech 55-E55
Beech 55-E55 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Bomar Field / Shelbyville Municipal Airport (SYI) to 44J · SPRUCE CREEK, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA95FA107
- 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 55-E55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 55
- 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
- N577M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bomar Field / Shelbyville Municipal Airport (SYI), Shelbyville, TNTo 44J · SPRUCE CREEK, FL
- 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 · descent
- 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
- 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 management, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD FLOWN ABOUT 2 HOURS 33 MINUTES WHEN HE ADVISED CONTROLLERS ON DUTY THAT HE WAS OUT OF FUEL, AND BOTH ENGINES HAD QUIT. THE AIRPLANE CRASHED ABOUT 3 MILES FROM THE AIRPORT AND EXPLODED AND BURNED FOR ABOUT 5 HOURS. THE RIGHT WING SEPARATED WHEN IT STRUCK A TREE AND WAS NOT IN THE MAIN WRECKAGE AREA. THERE WAS NO FUEL IN THE RIGHT MAIN NOR AUXILIARY FUEL TANK, NOR WAS ANY RESIDUE OF FUEL FOUND ON THE GROUND OR FOLIAGE NEAR THE RIGHT WING.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND TO MANAGE THE FUEL AVAILABLE IN FLIGHT BY IMPROPERLY SELECTING THE FUEL SELECTORS TO FUEL AVAILABLE IN OTHER TANKS, RESULTING IN BOTH ENGINES LOSING POWER. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR THE FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA95FA107
- Event ID
- 20001207X03335
- Case number
- MIA95FA107
- 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 1995-04-15.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 995b5b4a33f688927e3d161268035a8b6f14ba5542b147f2a17643bf25e9e7db; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:49:00.684Z.