BFO94LA018 · Beech 58
Vader Air Beech 58 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Schenectady County Airport (SCH) to Morrisville-Stowe State Airport (MVL)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO94LA018
- 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 58
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 58
- 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
- N4VG
- Operator
- Vader Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Schenectady County Airport (SCH), SCHENECTEDY, NYTo Morrisville-Stowe State Airport (MVL)
- 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 final
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vmc), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › Propeller feathering, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Stowe, VT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A PASSENGER REPORTED THAT WHEN THE AIRCRAFT WAS ABOUT 6 MI FROM THE DESTINATION AIRPORT AT 6000' MSL, THE PILOT BEGAN A DESCENT BY REDUCING THE POWER TO IDLE, PLACING THE PROPELLERS TO FULL FORWARD (HIGH RPM), LOWERING THE LANDING GEAR, EXTENDING THE FLAPS, & SLOWING TO 110 KNOTS. WHEN THE AIRPLANE WENT BELOW THE INTENDED APPROACH PATH ON SHORT FINAL APPROACH, THE PILOT APPLIED POWER, BUT THE RIGHT ENGINE DID NOT RESPOND. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE AIRPLANE YAWED 80 TO 90 DEGREES TO THE RIGHT. HE SAID A STALL WAS EMINENT, SO HE REDUCED THE POWER & ROLLED THE WINGS LEVEL. THE PLANE STRUCK TREES & THE TERRAIN. AN EXAM DID NOT REVEAL ANY PRE-EXISTING ANOMALIES. A REVIEW OF THE AIRPLANE & ENGINE HANDBOOKS CAUTIONED AGAINST RAPID DESCENTS AT IDLE RPM TO AVOID LOW CYLINDER HEAD TEMPERATURES. THE ENGINE MANUAL NOTED THAT LONG DESCENTS AT LOW MANIFOLD PRESSURE COULD COOL THE ENGINE(S) EXCESSIVELY & RESULT IN UNSATISFACTORY ACCELERATION. THE PILOT DID NOT FEATHER THE RIGHT ENGINE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT DID NOT FOLLOW THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURE AFTER LOSS OF POWER IN THE RIGHT ENGINE, BY FAILING TO FEATHER THE RIGHT ENGINE AND FAILING TO MAINTAIN MINIMUM SINGLE-ENGINE CONTROL SPEED. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO ADHERE TO THE CAUTIONS CONCERNING OPERATION OF THE ENGINES DURING DESCENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO94LA018
- Event ID
- 20001211X13707
- Case number
- BFO94LA018
- 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: 61ec58e80fef489db660ac88df43b66f382a9715538aedb4d5b7d319ec63f37d; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:06:49.986Z.