LAX99LA015 · Beech 36
Beech 36 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Brackett Field (POC) to Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99LA015
- 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 36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N36EL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brackett Field (POC), La Verne, CATo Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC), Sacramento, CA
- 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 (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 starvation
- 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 › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Palmdale, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that an annual inspection of the airplane had been completed 2 months earlier. The prior flight was flown from Chino, California, to Sacramento, California, and back to Chino without refueling after landing. The fuel computer/totalizer indicated that 58 gallons were left onboard following the trip. On the accident flight, the pilot leaned the mixture and engaged the autopilot after leveling out. A short time later, the engine began surging. The pilot enriched the mixture and turned the fuel boost on low, and the engine lost total power. He went through the emergency checklist, maintaining boost pump on and switching through the fuel tanks. After realizing he could not make the airport, he decided to land on a road and hit a truck. Examination of the wreckage revealed no fuel leaks were found in the lines or tanks. During disassembly, no fuel was found in the right main tank. Six gallons were in the left main tank; 7 gallons were in the left tip tank, and 2 gallons were in the right tip tank. The fuel selector was positioned to the left tip tank. A wet smear caked with dirt was present on the left tip tank from the filler port aft along the outboard side toward the trailing edge tip. The stopper type filler caps for the tip tanks were found loose in the filler ports. Also, the rubber stoppers were found to be cracked and deteriorated. The continuity of the fuel system was established. The aircraft master switch was energized and the sending unit floats were manipulated by hand and found that the gauges read high. The engine was restarted with the aid of serviceable propeller and fuel. The engine accelerated normally to 1,700 rpm where a magneto check was performed, and with a 60-rpm drop for both magnetos.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper management of his fuel supply which resulted in fuel starvation. Factors in the accident were the inadequate annual inspection which resulted in fuel siphoning, and a high reading fuel gage.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX99LA015
- Event ID
- 20001211X11293
- Case number
- LAX99LA015
- 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: 690a8febf1ce0808299496bfcdcc16b62d2790b4343bc4b2aeac0045cd54835f; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:39:51.195Z.