FTW91FA078 · Beech A36
Airtech Avionics Beech A36 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Addison Airport (ADS) to 14R · Caldwell, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW91FA078
- 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
- 2 · 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
- N6732C
- Operator
- Airtech Avionics
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Addison Airport (ADS), Addison, TXTo 14R · Caldwell, TX
- 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 final
- 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; Stall
- 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 NON-IFR RATED PRIVATE PILOT, WHO WAS TRAVELING ON BUSINESS, ROUTINELY ENGAGED THE SERVICES OF A SAFETY PILOT. AN IFR-RATED PILOT WAS RETAINED FOR THE FLIGHT. THE IFR PORTION OF THE FLIGHT WAS CANCELLED AT APPROXIMATELY 4,000 FEET IN THE VICINITY OF THE AIRPORT. A WITNESS REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE APPEARED TO BE HIGH AND FAST ON THE APPROACH. THE LANDING GEAR AND FLAPS WERE OBSERVED TO BE IN THE DOWN POSITION. ENGINE POWER WAS HEARD TO BE REDUCED, FOLLOWED BY ONLY THE SOUND OF A WINDMILLING PROPELLER. THE AIRPLANE THEN PITCHED UP, STALLED, AND DEPARTED FROM CONTROLLED FLIGHT ASSUMING A RIGHT WING LOW, NOSE LOW ATTITUDE. GROUND IMPACT WAS MADE IN THE SAME ATTITUDE. POST-IMPACT FIRE CONSUMED THE WRECKAGE. THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS FOUND TO BE POSITIONED BETWEEN THE OFF AND LEFT TANK POSITION AT THE ACCIDENT SITE. SUBSEQUENT LABORATORY EXAMINATION CONFIRMED THIS FINDING. THIS RESULTED IN THE FUEL STARVATION INDUCED LOSS OF POWER.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO PROPERLY POSITION THE FUEL SELECTOR HANDLE RESULTING IN A FUEL STARVATION POWER LOSS. A FACTOR WAS THE INADVERTENT STALL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW91FA078
- Event ID
- 20001212X17001
- Case number
- FTW91FA078
- 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: cbea2801df844825a13b18d0b63222033b7c6051a7d8764ab2682e66bcae9f5e; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:49:14.896Z.