CHI98FA068 · Beech C35
Beech C35 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Skylane Airport (3EV) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI98FA068
- 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
- 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 C35
- 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
- N782D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Skylane Airport (3EV)To 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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
- Fuel system › Starvation
- Fuel system, line fitting › Loose
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, improper
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane hit the tops of trees located about 280 feet from the impact site on the side of a highway berm. The descent angle measured eight degrees. The left wing hit two small trees located 17 feet in front of the initial ground scar. The airplane spun around and came to rest 9 feet from end of the initial ground scar. No propeller ground scars were found. One propeller blade was undamaged. The other blade was undamaged except it had 4 inches of chordwise scratching on the backside of the blade. The examination of the airplane revealed flight control and engine continuity. The fuel system on the engine had been converted to a fuel injection system. The fuel in the airplane was autogas. A green hose was found connecting the fuel line at the fire wall to the engine driven fuel pump. The fuel line was marked, 'GATES 6C5D FLEXLINE 5/16 INCH 1500 PSI MAX HYD WP MADE IN USA.' The manufacturer of the green hose reported it was a common hose used for petroleum products such as transmission fluid or anti-freeze. The manufacturer reported it had not made aviation hoses for many years. Inspection of the green hose revealed that the B nut attached to the fire wall was loose. A witness reported that the pilot performed maintenance on the airplane, although he was not an Airframe and Powerplant mechanic.
Probable cause
Improper maintenance by the use of a loose fitting unapproved fuel line, which resulted in fuel starvation and the loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI98FA068
- Event ID
- 20001208X09266
- Case number
- CHI98FA068
- 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: 9e9c0769f88f0210f21975976b03db666d5e17280222a6a171f9f238b3f92f88; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:43:43.458Z.