ATL96LA007 · Beech 23
Beech 23 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Auburn University Regional Airport (AUO) to Carimagua Airport (CCO)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL96LA007
- 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 23
- 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
- N2340J
- Operator
- Eric M. Bright · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Auburn University Regional Airport (AUO), Auburn, ALTo Carimagua Airport (CCO)
- 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 final
- 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
- 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 › Leak
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, line fitting › Loose
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On final approach to runway 32, the airplane had a complete loss of engine power. The pilot initiated a forced landing, and on the landing roll, the left wing struck a tree. The pilot stated that the preflight, engine run up, and the 30 minute flight had been uneventful until the loss of power. Initial examination of the airplane revealed the fuel tank selector was in the left tank position, and the left tank was empty. The right fuel tank was full. The pilot reported having 60 gallons of fuel before departure. No spilled fuel was noted at the wreckage site. The before landing checklist of a similar aircraft (BE-A23) showed that the fullest tank should have been selected. Further examination revealed a disconnected (loose) B-nut where the fuel line was connected to the carburetor.
Probable cause
a loose fuel line fitting, which resulted in a fuel leak and premature emptying of the left fuel tank; failure of the pilot to follow the checklist (select the fullest fuel tank for landing); fuel starvation; and subsequent Loss of engine power, while on final approach to land.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL96LA007
- Event ID
- 20001207X04635
- Case number
- ATL96LA007
- 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: 07950e60d53b9e44009d7b63598dc312bdf5a53ba9aeb1e7e4a87c969b65f1a8; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:08:01.933Z.