LAX97FA066 · Beech 95-C55
Beech 95-C55 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (KMYF) to March Air Reserve Base (RIV)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX97FA066
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech 95-C55
- 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
- N66MB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (KMYF), San Diego, CATo March Air Reserve Base (RIV), Riverside, CA
- 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
- 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)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot contacted SOCAL approach control for VFR advisories en route and was given 300 overcast and visibility less than 1/8 mile in fog. When the aircraft was 7 miles south-southeast of the approach fix, the pilot reported that he could see the airport and again contacted the tower for a weather check. The local controller reported that the tower visibility was less than 1/8 mile and the runway and approach lights were at full intensity. The pilot stated that he could not see the tower. He was given a clearance for a visual landing and an RVR of less than 1,000 feet. The last communication with the pilot was 1 mile out on final approach. The aircraft wreckage was found nearly 5 hours after an intensive ground search hampered by ground fog. The pilot reported that during the go-around/missed approach both engines quit within seconds of one another. He further reported that when they quit he changed tanks and hit the boost pumps. The main selectors were found on the main tanks. Postaccident examination revealed empty auxiliary tanks with fuel in the right main tank. The left tank was damaged and empty. The pilot began his day at 1000 hours the previous morning.
Probable cause
fuel starvation due to improper fuel management. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's preoccupation of discussing the legality of the approach with the tower controller, and fatigue.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX97FA066
- Event ID
- 20001208X07183
- Case number
- LAX97FA066
- 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: 9a271df170a2c8fa8c710f9d5c6d667b48c1dba7c318c8130e936b95887fa444; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:16:56.555Z.