LAX92LA270 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA270
- 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
- N1794W
- Operator
- Clyde E. Shields · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF), San Diego, CATo 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 · 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
- 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
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel system, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, delayed
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT WAS AT 4,000 FEET DESCENDING TOWARD THE AIRPORT WHEN THE PILOT INTENTIONALLY RAN THE RIGHT FUEL TANK DRY, THEN SWITCHED TO THE LEFT TANK. THE PILOT COULD NOT AFFECT AN ENGINE RESTART AND THE AIRCRAFT LANDED IN A PLOWED FIELD ABOUT 2 MILES SHORT OF THE AIRPORT AND ENCOUNTERED SOFT EARTH WHICH SHEARED THE LANDING GEAR OFF THE AIRCRAFT, DAMAGING THE WINGS. FAA INSPECTORS FOUND THAT THE RIGHT FUEL TANK CONTAINED LESS THAN 1 GALLON WHILE THE LEFT TANK HELD 10 GALLONS. EACH OF THE FUEL TANKS HOLDS 40 GALLONS TOTAL. THE FLIGHT MANUAL FOR THE AIRCRAFT CAUTIONS AGAINST TAKEOFFS, LANDINGS OR MANEUVERING WITH LESS THAN ONE QUARTER OF FUEL IN THE TANK SELECTED. THE FUEL PICK UP PORTS WERE NOTED TO BE IN THE REAR CORNER OF EACH FUEL TANK. THE FUEL SYSTEM WAS FUNCTIONALLY TESTED WITH NO ABNORMALITY IN SYSTEM FUNCTION FOUND. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE MADE TWO TRIPS BETWEEN BRAWLEY AND SAN DIEGO WITHOUT REFUELING THE AIRCRAFT.
Probable cause
FUEL STARVATION DUE TO THE PILOT'S; 1) FAILURE TO REFUEL THE AIRCRAFT, 2) IMPROPER USE OF THE FUEL SYSTEM, AND 3) HIS DELAYED POSITIONING OF THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE TO A TANK CONTAINING FUEL. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ADHERE TO THE PROCEDURES SPECIFIED IN THE AIRCRAFT FLIGHT MANUAL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA270
- Event ID
- 20001211X14922
- Case number
- LAX92LA270
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-06-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f81b4a7ee39c8635784f3d3b9a65596662a2d9df977a71138edc1dfc241d5683; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:59:50.586Z.