LAX91FA292 · Beech G35
Beech G35 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC) to Whiteman Airport (WHP)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91FA292
- 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 G35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N164N
- Operator
- Taylor, Donald · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC), Sacramento, CATo Whiteman Airport (WHP)
- 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
- 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
- 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 PILOT & A PASSENGER WERE COMPLETING A PERSONAL CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT. THE PILOT ACKNOWLEDGED CLEARANCE TO LAND, THEN THERE WAS NO FURTHER COMMUNICATION FROM THE AIRPLANE. THE FINAL APPROACH SEGMENT TO THE RUNWAY WAS OVER A RESIDENTIAL & LIGHT INDUSTRIAL BUSINESS AREA. WITNESSES REPORTED THE AIRPLANE APPEARED TO BE FLYING LOW & THE ENGINE WAS NOT RUNNING. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED NEAR THE TOP OF A STAINLESS STEEL STORAGE TANK, ABOUT 35 FT ABOVE THE GROUND, 800 FT SHORT OF THE RUNWAY & 50 FT RIGHT OF THE RUNWAY CENTERLINE. THE AIRPLANE WAS DESTROYED & THE OCCUPANTS RECEIVED FATAL INJURIES. AN EXAM OF THE FUEL SELECTOR REVEALED THAT IT WAS POSITIONED BETWEEN 'OFF' & THE RIGHT FUEL TANK POSITION. THIS POSITION WOULD NOT ALLOW ANY FUEL TO GO TO THE ENGINE. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE WAS FOUND THAT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
IMPROPER POSITIONING OF THE FUEL SELECTOR BY THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL STARVATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91FA292
- Event ID
- 20001212X17572
- Case number
- LAX91FA292
- 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: 73acebf1add54694f21f6adb8b62b675adf2ed45663ceb2cdc2894d7d04c4107; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:43:15.996Z.