ATL93FA155 · Beech F35
Beech F35 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Warren County Memorial Airport (RNC) to Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93FA155
- 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 F35
- 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
- N3886B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Warren County Memorial Airport (RNC), McMinnville, TNTo Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, 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
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Refueling, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT DEPARTED MANASSAS, VA., ON AN IFR FLIGHT PLAN TO MEMPHIS, TN. APPROXIMATELY 50 MILES SOUTH OF MANASSAS, THE PILOT REPORTED (UNSPECIFIED) MECHANICAL TROUBLE, AND LANDED IN CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. THE PILOT PURCHASED 11 GALLONS OF AVIATION FUEL IN CHARLOTTESVILLE. THE FLIGHT THEN DEPARTED WITH NO FLIGHT PLAN ON FILE. THE AIRCRAFT LATER LANDED IN MCMINNVILLE, TN. THE PILOT THEN PURCHASED 30.8 GALLONS OF FUEL. THE FLIGHT DEPARTED MCMINNVILLE WITHOUT FILING A FLIGHT PLAN. THE PILOT CONTACTED JACKSON, TN. AFSS AND REPORTED HAVING ENGINE PROBLEMS. THE PILOT REPORTED THE ENGINE BEGAN RUNNING ROUGH 'SOME TIME BACK' AFTER A PREVIOUS STOP. HE STATED, JUST PRIOR TO THE CRASH, THAT HE HAD PASSED OVER NUMEROUS OFF AIRPORT LANDING SITES, BUT THAT NOW HE HAD FEW OPTIONS REMAINING. FOUR FIVE GALLON PLASTIC CONTAINERS, WITH THE ODOR OF AUTOMOTIVE FUEL, WERE FOUND ONBOARD THE AIRCRAFT. A PLASTIC FUEL CAP FROM ONE OF THE CONTAINERS WAS FOUND INSIDE THE RIGHT FUEL CELL. THE FUEL DRAINED FROM THE AIRCRAFT SMELLED AND LOOKED LIKE OLD AUTOMOTIVE FUEL.
Probable cause
The improper use of old auto fuel for the refueling of the aircraft. Factors in the accident were the deterioration of the octane in the auto fuel being used in the aircraft and the delayed decision by the pilot to choose a suitable area and execute a forced landing prior to loss of all altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93FA155
- Event ID
- 20001211X13303
- Case number
- ATL93FA155
- 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: 08483772c9a191c9dc84134165c37ca1d6a3dba1dcbc954adb3e1a6fb7613fa8; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:23:41.354Z.