LAX93FA315 · Beech E35
Beech E35 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Modesto City Co-Harry Sham Field (MOD) to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93FA315
- 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
- 2 · 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 E35
- 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
- N3233C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Modesto City Co-Harry Sham Field (MOD), Modesto, CATo Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Phoenix, AZ
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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; Tree(s); Wire, transmission
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Maneuver, excessive
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT SAID TO A WEATHER BRIEFER THAT HE MAY STOP EN ROUTE, AND THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED DURING AN APPROACH TO AN AIRPORT APPROXIMATELY MIDWAY BETWEEN THE DEPARTURE AND DESTINATION AIRPORTS. THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH TREES AND POWER LINES WHILE ON FINAL APPROACH. A PILOT WITNESS WATCHED THE AIRCRAFT IN THE PATTERN AND NOTED THAT THE AIRCRAFT WAS FLYING A CLOSE IN DOWNWIND AND BASE CONTRARY TO NOISE ABATEMENT PROCEDURES AND HIS TURNS WERE VERY STEEP. THE PILOT STATED TO PARAMEDICS THAT HE HAD LOST POWER ON FINAL. THE AIRCRAFT HAS FIVE SELECTABLE FUEL TANKS. THE MAIN SELECTOR WAS FOUND ON THE LEFT MAIN TANK. THE LEFT TANK WAS OF AN ORIGINAL DESIGN UNBAFFLED CONFIGURATION, WHICH WAS ON THE INSIDE OF ALL THE TRAFFIC PATTERN TURNS. THE AIRCRAFT FLIGHT MANUAL CAUTIONS AGAINST PROLONGED TURNS OR SLIPS WITH LESS THAN 10 GALLONS IN THE SELECTED TANK. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE.
Probable cause
A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO UNPORTING OF THE SELECTED MAIN FUEL TANK AT A CRITICAL TIME, WHICH WAS CAUSED BY THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE DIRECTIVES IN THE FLIGHT MANUAL REGARDING PROLONGED TURNS OR SLIPS WITH LESS THAN 10 GALLONS IN THE SELECTED TANK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93FA315
- Event ID
- 20001211X13163
- Case number
- LAX93FA315
- 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: e0ee7410ae1a0ea82353b2a58b3a66684762aca3e2dadc6dea4a5843b8ca2973; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:25:54.574Z.