LAX99LA202 · Beech D-45
Travis Afb Aero Club Beech D-45 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From 8Q0 · TRAVIS AFB, CA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99LA202
- 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
- 0 · 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 D-45
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft D-45
- 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
- N20869
- Operator
- Travis Afb Aero Club
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 8Q0 · TRAVIS AFB, CATo not recorded
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fuel system, electric boost pump › Failure, total
- Fuel system, pump › Failure, partial
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The purpose of the flight was to fly over the lake with the intent of viewing the lake and surrounding area. The lake is 10 miles from the airport. Approximately 30 minutes into the flight the pilot noted a loss of fuel pressure followed by a rough running engine. He believed that the engine driven fuel pump had failed. He engaged the electric boost pump and the fuel pressure came back on-line and engine ran normally. The pilot decided to return to the airport to make a precautionary landing. He again noted that the fuel pressure gage needle began to move sporadically and the engine began to run rough and subsequently lost power. He made an unsuccessful attempt to restart the engine utilizing the in-flight engine failure checklist and subsequently ditched the airplane in the lake. No discrepancies were noted with the flight prior to the loss of engine power. The fuel system was inspected with no foreign debris found. A functional check was performed on the electric boost pump and no fuel flow output was observed; however, during the test the pump shorted out. Both the engine driven fuel pump and electric boost pump were sent out for further tests. Two functional checks were conducted on the engine driven fuel pump. An adjusting nut on the engine driven fuel pump allows for an increase or decrease in fuel flow. The first test was completed in the as-received condition with the adjusting nut loose. The results were consistently low, but fuel flow output was observed from the pump. The adjusting nut was then readjusted to overhaul specifications for the second functional check. The check revealed that the fuel flow was within overhaul specifications. During the teardown of the electric boost pump, it was noted that the bearings were loose allowing the pump vanes to rub up against the throat of the pump, decreasing fuel flowing through the fuel system.
Probable cause
Loss of engine power due to a loose adjustment nut on the engine driven fuel pump that allowed for a decrease in fuel flow and fuel pressure, and the subsequent failure of the electric fuel boost pump due to loose bearings decreasing fuel flow and fuel pressure to sustain engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX99LA202
- Event ID
- 20001212X18828
- Case number
- LAX99LA202
- 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: 67000425debc21e8abc3c36ccb85b5a21e56de0d5c8420c46d2262c898a20c7f; retrieved 2026-09-22T15:01:48.006Z.