MIA97FA239 · Beech 95-B55
Beech 95-B55 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From IKU · Ankeny, IA to Tuscaloosa National Airport (TCL)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA97FA239
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 95-B55
- 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
- N5678K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From IKU · Ankeny, IATo Tuscaloosa National Airport (TCL), Tuscaloosa, AL
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · cruise
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Two witnesses about 15 miles northeast of the crash site, reported they heard and saw an airplane at low altitude and low airspeed. The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) found Beech 95-B55, N5678K, in an open pasture on the following morning. No radio calls were recorded from the airplane before the accident. Examination of the fuel tanks revealed the right auxiliary tank contained about 1 quart of green fuel, and the left main and auxiliary tanks were found dry, as was the right main fuel tank. There was no fuel spillage observed at the crash site, either on the ground, or trees, and there were no breaches found throughout the fuel system. The fuel supply lines were found clear and unobstructed. Overall visual examination of the engine compartment and airframe did not reveal any evidence of fuel stains or fuel leakage. The pilot's son reported that company had a policy to 'top off' each aircraft with fuel after each flight. The load manifest for this flight indicated that there was '74 gallons' of fuel in the main tanks, and '60 gallons' of fuel in the auxiliary tanks. The 95-B55, had a total fuel capacity of 142 gallons, of which 136 gallons were usable fuel. However, no record was available to determine when the airplane was last refueled. A direct flight from the departure point to the crash site was 469 statute miles. Calculations showed the duration of flight would have been about 2.3 hours, and would have required about 57.5 gallons of fuel.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate preflight, and his improper in-flight planning/decision, which led to fuel exhaustion and a forced landing at night on unprepared terrain. Factors relating to the accident were: darkness, and the lack of a suitable area for an emergency landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA97FA239
- Event ID
- 20001208X08700
- Case number
- MIA97FA239
- 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: 14abc204ca5557b784b7c911cbd35252d5f3f390290559af011b7dd654934a2b; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:28:21.471Z.