LAX94LA040 · Beech D95A
California In Nice Beech D95A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Reid-Hillview Airport of Santa Clara County (RHV) to 3O7
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA040
- 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 D95A
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 95
- 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
- N566KK
- Operator
- California in Nice
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reid-Hillview Airport of Santa Clara County (RHV), San Jose, CATo 3O7
- 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 downwind
- 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
- Dual student › Fuel tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE TWIN ENGINE AIRPLANE EXPERIENCED A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER WHILE IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN. THE CFI ASSUMED THE CONTROLS AND BEGAN THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURES. THE CFI DISCOVERED THE DUAL STUDENT HAD SWITCHED THE FUEL SELECTORS TO THE OFF POSITION WHILE COMPLETING THE BEFORE LANDING CHECKLIST. THE CFI STATED THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT ALTITUDE REMAINING TO ATTEMPT AN ENGINE START. THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN SHORT OF THE RUNWAY IN A CULTIVATED FIELD. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK THE RUNWAY EDGE DURING THE LANDING ROLL.
Probable cause
THE IMPROPER POSITION OF THE FUEL SELECTOR SWITCH BY THE DUAL STUDENT DURING THE BEFORE LANDING CHECKLIST AND INADEQUATE SUPERVISION BY THE CFI. FUEL STARVATION TO BOTH ENGINES WAS A FACTOR IN THIS ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA040
- Event ID
- 20001211X13751
- Case number
- LAX94LA040
- 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: efed2a5900200fcab9cd3e9a4f8c09125041f27103b21d4f207d350ac989217e; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:29:08.191Z.