FTW96LA335 · Beech V35B
Beech V35B · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From 4R2 · Austin, TX to Ellington Airport (EFD)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96LA335
- 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 V35B
- 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
- N6054Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4R2 · Austin, TXTo Ellington Airport (EFD), Houston, TX
- 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
- 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
- Utility pole; Wire, transmission
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During an en route descent at night to the destination airport, the airplane's engine lost power. Subsequently, during a forced landing, the airplane impacted powerlines and poles, then it crashed, and a fire erupted. Witnesses reported that engine 'noise was not heard.' The pilot reported that he had one tank showing rubber particles in the fuel each time he drained fuel, but the other fuel cell (replaced in January 1995) did not bleed rubber through the sump. The postimpact fire destroyed the fuel tanks and lines. The main fuel screen of the fuel contol unit was clear of debris, and fuel was found in the fuel control unit and the fuel pump. One propeller blade had marks consistent with the powerline cable diameter. Flight control continuity was confirmed by tracing the airplane control cables. Maintenance records did not reveal any open discrepancy. During a postaccident engine test run, the engine performed within the manufacturer's specifications.
Probable cause
loss of engine power for undetermined reason(s). Factors relating to the accident were: darkness, and obstructions in the emergency landing area (transmission lines and poles).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96LA335
- Event ID
- 20001208X06491
- Case number
- FTW96LA335
- 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 1996-08-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 98ed15b7f8e8d875c5f5d1b7e40cce45843af5feffa4f109baed66cf6190ddd3; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:35:02.380Z.