LAX91FA282 · Beech 65
Beech 65 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Modesto City Co-Harry Sham Field (MOD) to Lake Tahoe Airport (TVL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91FA282
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Beech 65
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 65
- 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
- N713JB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Modesto City Co-Harry Sham Field (MOD), Modesto, CATo Lake Tahoe Airport (TVL), S LAKE TAHOE, CA
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Wrong propeller feathered, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A BEECH 65 COLLIDED WITH TREES IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AFTER AN INFLT LOSS OF CONTROL. A PILOT OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE START A TURN TO THE RIGHT, ROLL RIGHT AND CONTINUED UNTIL INVERTED AND ENTER INTO A SPIN. THE ACFT WAS IN A STEEP NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE WHEN IT BEGAN ITS PULL; OUT. THE ENGINES WERE HEARD BY A GROUND WITNESS WHO INITIALLY MISTOOK THEM FOR AN APPROACH MOTORCYCLE. THE PILOT INITIALLY FLEW THE ACFT 45 DAYS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT AND LOGGED 3.5 DUAL INSTRUCTION HOURS. THERE WAS NO RECORD IN THE PILOT'S LOGBOOK OF ANY ADDITIONAL FLT TRNG SINCE THE INITIAL FLT. THE PLT SATISFACTORILY COMPLETED A BFR IN A CESSNA 150 FOUR DAYS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE DSCLSD THE RT ENG HAD BROKEN EXHAUST VALVE, BUT THE LEFT PROP WAS FEATHERED. THERE WERE NO PREEXISTING MECH MALFUNCTIONS OR FAILURES FOUND WITH THE LEFT ENG.
Probable cause
IMPROPER EMERGENCY PROCEDURES BY THE PILOT, WHEN HE INADVERTENTLY SHUT DOWN THE LEFT ENGINE AFTER ENCOUNTERING A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER IN THE RIGHT ENGINE. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF THE RIGHT ENGINE'S #6 EXHAUST VALVE SEAT BY OTHER MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL, FATIGUE FAILURE OF THE #6 EXHAUST VALVE, AND THE PILOT'S LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91FA282
- Event ID
- 20001212X17290
- Case number
- LAX91FA282
- 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: d8282340329cc90d689920b05d77bc76b629f65b428983b351fccb8cb50cb7fb; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:44:23.065Z.