LAX98LA120 · Beech C35
Beech C35 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) while maneuvering
From Q94 · CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX98LA120
- 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
- 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
- N8948A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Q94 · CATo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The practice flight originated at Rio Linda approximately 1000. The pilot performed two landings in Lincoln, California, and he was returning to Rio Linda when the engine lost power. During the off-airport landing the airplane sustained substantial damage. The pilot stated that the airplane was inside a locked hangar when he performed his preflight check. He said the only light available was the one coming through the hangar skylight. During the visual check of the fuel levels it appeared from light reflections that the fuel level was all the way to the tank openings. According to the FAA inspector who examined the airplane on-scene, the left wing was found severed from the fuselage and lying inverted. The fuel tank was split open with only a slight hint of fuel and no evidence of a fuel spill on the ground. The right wing fuel cap was opened and no fuel could be seen in the tank. The right wing tank sump drain was opened and nothing came out. There was only a hint of fuel at the fuel strainer drain. The fuel selector was found in the right fuel tank detent.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate fuel management which led to fuel exhaustion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX98LA120
- Event ID
- 20001211X09718
- Case number
- LAX98LA120
- 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: cefa463e38441b963062a079a4b9a948688b7e3801ab8869186c61db9ded7d8b; retrieved 2026-09-22T17:57:01.181Z.