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IAD96LA047 · Beech F35

23 Feb 1996 · MT. STERLING, KY, United States

Beech F35 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb

From IOB to Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport (MGY)

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Event

NTSB case
IAD96LA047
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 F35

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 35
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
N3850B
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From IOBTo Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport (MGY), Dayton, OH
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
Initial climb
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 (mechanical failure)
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

  • Engine assembly, piston › Failure

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot stated that during the preflight inspection, engine run up, takeoff ground roll, and initial climb out, he noted no evidence of an engine anomaly. As the airplane climbed through about 500 feet agl, the pilot turned the fuel boost pump off and adjusted the power settings to climb power, then he suddenly heard a loud clattering noise and felt a severe vibration. The pilot added power in an attempt to 'limp' back to the departure runway (runway 21,) but when he pushed the throttles forward, the engine noise and vibration got worse, then the engine lost power completely. He stated that he felt his only option was to land in the opposite direction on the runway (runway 3,) so he lowered the landing gear and executed a steep 'S' turn to align with the runway. The pilot stated that the airplane touched down on the last 1000 feet of runway, and he '...stood on the brakes...' but was unable to stop the airplane before the end of the runway. The airplane ran off the departure end of the runway, through a barbed wire fence and down an embankment, coming to a stop against scrub trees. The winds were reported from 220 degrees magnetic at 13 knots gusting to 20 knots. Postaccident examination revealed that the piston in the number one cylinder had failed.

Probable cause

a loss of engine power due to the failure of the number one piston. Related factors were the unsuitable terrain available for the forced landing, and the strong tailwind encountered during the forced landing.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record IAD96LA047
Event ID
20001208X05270
Case number
IAD96LA047
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: 372d90efe8b681e877c73b3447698d917a9062e75fc12ea9bb883e1c18c83416; retrieved 2026-09-22T22:48:04.686Z.