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CHI92LA237 · Beech C90

6 Aug 1992 · Pontiac, MI, United States

Jabil Circuit Beech C90 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach

From C19 · Holland, MI to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
CHI92LA237
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 C90

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 90
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
N90RG
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From C19 · Holland, MITo 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
Approach · IFR initial approach
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

  • Pilot in command › Fuel supply, discontinued
  • Pilot in command › Fuel system, not understood

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

NTSB narrative

PILOT WAS ON FINAL APPROACH WHEN HE STATED HE GOT A FUEL CROSSFEED 'WARNING' LIGHT. HE THEN PROCEEDED TO TRY TO TROUBLE SHOOT THE FUEL SYSTEM BY CYCLING THE RIGHT BOOST PUMP SWITCH, AND 'RESET AND ARM' THE AUTO CROSSFEED. HE STATED THE CROSSFEED LIGHT CAME ON AGAIN FOLLOWED BY THE RIGHT FUEL PRESSURE LIGHT, AND HE EXPERIENCED A POWER LOSS ON THE RIGHT SIDE. WHEN HE FEATHERED THE RIGHT ENGINE, THE LEFT ENGINE ALSO EXPERIENCED A LOSS OF POWER. THE PILOT CLEANED UP THE AIRPLANE AND DITCHED IN THE LAKE SHORT OF THE AIRPORT. THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE LEFT WING FUEL TANKS WERE EMPTY, AND THE LEFT NACELLE TANK WAS COLLAPSED. THE RIGHT WING FUEL TANKS WERE EMPTY, AND THE RIGHT NACELLE TANK CONTAINED 19 GALLONS OF FUEL. THE FUEL SUPPLY, TRANSFER, AND CROSSFEED SYSTEMS WERE FUNCTIONALLY CHECKED, AND WERE OPERABLE. ALL COCKPIT FUEL SYSTEM LIGHTS INDICATED NORMAL SYSTEM OPERATION.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S NOT UNDERSTANDING THE FUEL SYSTEM, AND HIS SUBSEQUENT INADVERTENT DISCONTINUANCE OF FUEL TO BOTH ENGINES.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI92LA237
Event ID
20001211X15359
Case number
CHI92LA237
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: 01b3bd28c7cb9bab8939f7e854bbd6bbfc692297d26325d0b8e6112afb302e9e; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:49:46.623Z.