CHI98FA028 · Beech BE 58
Beech BE 58 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Macomb Municipal Airport (MQB) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI98FA028
- 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
- 6 · 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 BE 58
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft BE-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
- N472TL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Macomb Municipal Airport (MQB), Macomb, ILTo not recorded
- 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 · 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Stall/spin
- 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
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Separation
- Engine assembly, crankcase › Fatigue
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The twin-engine airplane began its instrument flight loaded about 800 pounds beyond its certificated maximum gross take off weight. Shortly after reaching its assigned altitude of 7,000 feet above mean sea level, the pilot advised the FAA controller, '...we have an engine problem.' The problem was not identified during a subsequent radio transmission. Shortly after the pilot's last radio transmission, witnesses on the ground observed the airplane in a counterclockwise flat spin. The on-scene examination revealed the left engine had suffered a mechanical failure. Continuity of the flight, engine, fuel and propeller controls was established. An oil film was found on the left engine's nacelle, inboard half of the wing, left side of the fuselage and the horizontal stabilizer and elevator. The left engine case had fractured near the number 2 cylinder. Examination of the case fracture surfaces revealed fatigue failure at its initiation point. The fatigue extended about 7 inches from its origin. Additionally, the number 2 cylinder connecting rod had separated from the crankshaft journal. Maintenance records showed the engine had a crankcase crack that was not covered by an FAA Airworthiness Directive or engine manufacturer specifications. The maintenance personnel informed the pilot about the crack. Examination of the airplane's hangar floor revealed a pool of fresh oil beneath the area where the left engine would have been positioned. Oil-based tire imprints made by the left main landing gear tire were found on the hangar floor that lead from the oil pool to the ramp outside the hangar. The pilot's logbook records showed he had received 4 hours of multi-engine flight instruction during one flight session on one day. The next day the logbook showed the pilot had received 10-hours of multi-engine instruction during 2 flight sessions. He obtained his multi-engine rating on the third day. Before these instructional entries were made there were 6 other flight instruction entries showing, 'X Country IFR.'
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to separation of the left engine's number 2 connecting rod as a result of fatigue failure. Also causal was the pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed which resulted in a stall/spin. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's operation of the aircraft with known deficiencies and exceeding the maximum gross weight of the airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI98FA028
- Event ID
- 20001208X08959
- Case number
- CHI98FA028
- 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: 14e6df0121697d0e1cbce4264bf37bd26770d767fcdf03b101a3a430e9c776af; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:46:24.065Z.