Cutter Aviation Beech 58 accident
Beech 58 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) to La Junta Municipal Airport (LHX)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA367
- 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
- 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 58
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 58
- 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
- N365C
- Operator
- Cutter Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), Albuquerque, NMTo La Junta Municipal Airport (LHX), La Junta, CO
- 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 · climb to 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
- Partial 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
As the pilot stepped climbed the airplane through 12,000 feet, the right engine lost power. The power loss was confirmed by low manifold and fuel pressures. Activation of the boost pump increased fuel flow, but did not restore power. Despite full power from the left engine and the propeller set at fine pitch, the airplane was unable to maintain altitude. The pilot elected not to feather the right propeller because this would cause the airplane to descend to single engine service ceiling, and since the right engine manifold pressure indicated some power was being developed, he elected to make a forced landing in an open meadow. The airplane slid across the ground, struck a large rock, and spun around; then a fire erupted. Disassembly and inspection of the right engine failed to disclose any discrepancy that would have been causal to the power loss. Most engine accessories were destroyed by postimpact fire.
Probable cause
loss of power in the right engine for undetermined reason(s). Related factors were: that the power loss occurred above the airplane's single engine service ceiling (at high density altitude), and the lack of suitable terrain for a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA367
- Event ID
- 20001208X08859
- Case number
- FTW97LA367
- 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: 326e706468ab4e1b6e9e948f89149bbb13b7e6e2737491e385d7a5538c79bc07; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:21:52.744Z.