ATL93FA031 · Beech 95-B55B
Gene Stewart Beech 95-B55B · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV) to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93FA031
- 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
- 6 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech 95-B55B
- 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
- N7479N
- Operator
- Gene Stewart
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV), Gainesville, FLTo Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM), Birmingham, AL
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE COMMERCIAL PILOT AND 5 PASSENGERS WERE ON A CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT. NIGHT, IMC PREVAILED. SHORTLY AFTER THE FLIGHT BEGAN A DESCENT FOR LANDING, THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE HAD AN 'ENGINE OUT'. HE THEN FOLLOWED UP BY SAYING THAT BOTH ENGINES WERE 'CUTTING OUT'. WHILE RECEIVING VECTORS TO A CLOSER AIRPORT, THE AIRPLANE CRASHED INTO THE WALL OF A DEEP ROCK QUARRY. THE AIRCRAFT WAS DESTROYED BY IMPACT FORCES AND FIRE. THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT ONE OF THE FUEL TANK SELECTOR VALVES WAS IN THE 'AUX' TANK POSITION. THE AIRCRAFT CHECKLIST STATES THAT THE AUXILIARY TANKS ARE TO BE USED IN LEVEL FLIGHT ONLY. A TEARDOWN AND INSPECTION OF THE ENGINES AND COMPONENTS DID NOT REVEAL EVIDENCE OF A MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S CONTINUED FLIGHT WITH THE FUEL TANK SELECTOR HANDLES IMPROPERLY POSITIONED, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL STARVATION AND ENGINE STOPPAGE. FACTORS WERE THE CLOUDY WEATHER CONDITIONS, THE NIGHT LIGHTING CONDITIONS, AND THE STEEP, HILLY TERRAIN CONDITIONS (A QUARRY) AT THE CRASH SITE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93FA031
- Event ID
- 20001211X16115
- Case number
- ATL93FA031
- 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 1992-12-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ecf85c491faa4484bf9cb242b9958b20027fc5d6cf2f5090816465cd5fb35ff3; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:47:01.536Z.