MIA93LA077 · Beech N35
Beech N35 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during an emergency descent
From Naples Municipal Airport (APF) to Knoxville Downtown Island Airport (DKX)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA93LA077
- 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 N35
- 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
- N1354Z
- Operator
- Davis, William W. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Naples Municipal Airport (APF), Naples, FLTo Knoxville Downtown Island Airport (DKX), Knoxville, TN
- 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
- Emergency descent
- 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)
- 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
- Engine assembly, crankshaft › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING CRUISE FLIGHT, THE ENGINE EXPERIENCED A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER. DURING THE DESCENT FOR A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING, THE ENGINE QUIT AND THE PROPELLER STOPPED. THE PILOT PERFORMED A FORCED LANDING ON A ROAD, AND DURING THE LANDING ROLL THE RIGHT WING COLLIDED WITH A ROAD SIGN. THE AIRPLANE VEERED TO THE RIGHT, COLLIDED WITH A FENCE THEN CAME TO REST. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT THE CRANKSHAFT FAILED NEAR THE REAR COUNTERWEIGHT. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT IT FAILED DUE TO FATIGUE WHICH EMANATED FROM A SUBSURFACE ORIGIN. REVIEW OF THE ENGINE LOGBOOKS REVEALED THAT THE CRANKSHAFT WAS THE ORIGINAL WHEN THE ENGINE WAS MANUFACTURED ON APRIL 14, 1961. THE ENGINE HAD ACCUMULATED 4,032 HOURS TOTAL TIME, AND HAD BEEN OVERHAULED TWO TIMES, THE LATEST OCCURRING IN 1986. AT THAT TIME THE CRANKSHAFT WAS MAGNAFLUXED. THE ENGINE HAD ACCUMULATED 1,032 HOURS SINCE THE LATEST OVERHAUL.
Probable cause
THE COLLISION WITH A ROAD SIGN DURING A FORCED LANDING. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO FATIGUE FAILURE OF THE CRANKSHAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA93LA077
- Event ID
- 20001211X11876
- Case number
- MIA93LA077
- 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: faf644c3f6c33a4c9f4e965b6815bec94a5788ea6e7ee31fa4c018e3c1f080ba; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:17:38.565Z.