ANC99LA091 · Cessna 337B
Cessna 337B · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Seldovia Airport (SOV) to Homer Airport (HOM)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC99LA091
- 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
Cessna 337B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 337
- 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
- N5499S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Seldovia Airport (SOV), AKTo Homer Airport (HOM), Homer, AK
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The certificated commercial pilot reported that during his preflight inspection, he noted that the cockpit fuel quantity indicators indicated that both main tanks were about one-quarter full. The pilot stated that he did not climb up on the wings and verify the remaining fuel quantity in the main fuel tanks, but planned to make the short flight to Homer, Alaska, to purchase fuel. He said that just after departure from runway 34, about 500 feet msl, both engines began to run rough, followed by a total loss of engine power. He subsequently made a gear-up, forced landing on a tidal beach. During the forced landing, the left wing struck a stand of trees, and the airplane landed hard on the beach. A responding Alaska State Trooper discovered that both the left and right main fuel tanks were dry. He added that the left auxiliary fuel tank appeared to have a 'minimal amount of fuel left, and the right auxiliary fuel tank was empty.' The airplane sustained substantial damage to the wings, fuselage, and empennage.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight planning/preparation, and subsequent fuel exhaustion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC99LA091
- Event ID
- 20001212X19134
- Case number
- ANC99LA091
- 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: 2c4a96a3c7d76d2f137fde12b23ec7c90294f25b6a56aab6179ed55de68dabef; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:56:57.866Z.