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FTW92LA060 · Beech A36

25 Jan 1992 · Albuquerque, NM, United States

Beech A36 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route

From P06 · Bullhead City, AZ to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
FTW92LA060
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 A36

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 36
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
N88ES
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From P06 · Bullhead City, AZTo not recorded
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 · 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 (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 exhaustion
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

  • Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
  • Fluid, fuel › Siphoning
  • Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE AIRPLANE WAS DAMAGED WHEN IT COLLIDED WITH ROUGH, SOFT TERRAIN AND THE GEAR COLLAPSED DURING A FORCED LANDING ON A DIRT ROAD. THE FORCED LANDING WAS EXECUTED FOLLOWING A POWER LOSS DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION WHILE THE AIRPLANE WAS DESCENDING TO LAND AT ITS DESTINATION. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE SYSTEM FOLLOWING THE ACCIDENT AND NO FUEL STAINS WERE FOUND ON THE AIRPLANE. THE PIC STATED THAT THE ESTIMATED TIME EN ROUTE HAD EXTENDED FROM TWO HOURS AND FORTY FIVE MINUTES TO THREE HOURS AND THIRTY SIX MINTES, BUT THAT THE FUEL GAUGES READ EMPTY AND ONE QUARTER FULL WHEN HE ARRIVED IN THE AREA OF HIS DESTINATION. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE THOUGHT THAT HE HAD A HANGING MAIN GEAR DOOR AND IT CREATED A LOW PRESSURE AREA NEAR THE FUEL TANK VENTS WHICH PRESSURIZED THE FUEL TANKS AND CAUSED SIPHONING. THE FUEL CONSUMPTION RATE FOR THE OUTBOUND FLIGHT HAD BEEN 12.3 GPH AND THE RETURN FLIGHT FUEL CONSUMPTION WAS 15.8 GPH AT, ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, THE SAME POWER SETTINGS.

Probable cause

THE PILOT IN COMMAND FAILED TO PROPERLY MONITOR THE FUEL CONSUMPTION RATE OF THE AIRPLANE WHEN HE PERCEIVED THAT IT MIGHT BE HIGHER THAN NORMAL. THE ENGINE FAILURE WAS A RESULT OF FUEL EXHAUSTION, AGGRAVATED BY POSSIBLE FUEL SIPHONING FROM THE TANKS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW92LA060
Event ID
20001211X13992
Case number
FTW92LA060
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: 0927572938e675b6b6b04e5832401916ea90e1f71cb8574b45101a962b7c5f99; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:21:42.577Z.