ATL92FA031 · Beech 58TC
Beech 58TC · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Mid-Carolina Regional Airport (RUQ) to 49J · HILTON HEAD IS., SC
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL92FA031
- 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
- 5 · 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 58TC
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 58
- 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
- N6588S
- Operator
- Weinhold, Donald L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mid-Carolina Regional Airport (RUQ), Salisbury, NCTo 49J · HILTON HEAD IS., SC
- 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
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vmc), not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE COMMERCIAL PILOT HAD INITIATED A DIVERT TO ANOTHER AIRPORT AFTER HEARING REPORTS OF LOW VISIBILITIY AT HIS DESTINATION. HE REPORTED THAT HE HAD NO APPROACH PLATES FOR HIS DIVERT FIELD. WHILE BEING RADAR VECTORED AT ABOUT 3,000 FEET AGL, HE REPORTED 'HAVING ENGINE PROBLEMS.' ABOUT 1 MINUTE LATER, HE REPORTED 'GOING DOWN'. THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED IN WOODED TERRAIN AND BURNED. THE DESCENT ANGLE THROUGH THE TREES WAS ABOUT 30 DEGREES. RADAR DATA INDICATES THAT THE AIRCRAFT RAPIDLY LOST ABOUT 30 KNOTS PRIOR TO THE PILOT'S LAST RADIO CALL, FOLLOWED BY A HIGH RATE OF DESCENT. AN EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THAT THE LEFT PROPELLER WAS NEAR THE FEATHERED POSITION AT IMPACT. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF POWER ON THE RIGHT ENGINE AT IMPACT. TEARDOWNS OF BOTH ENGINES AND THEIR COMPONENTS FAILED TO EXPLAIN THE REPORTED ENGINE PROBLEM.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN MINIMUM CONTROLLABLE AIRSPEED AFTER A REPORTED ENGINE POWER LOSS, RESULTING IN A LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL. A FACTOR WAS THE LOSS OF POWER ON THE LEFT ENGINE. THE REASON FOR THE LEFT ENGINE POWER LOSS COULD NOT BE DETERMINED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL92FA031
- Event ID
- 20001212X18540
- Case number
- ATL92FA031
- 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: 5c1aac1ada88917ad08dfa746d3dfb4a975114cbbd1b91e371ed54f9ef0cc25f; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:26:08.035Z.