FTW99LA180 · Bellanca BL17-30A
Bellanca BL17-30A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB) to Q26
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW99LA180
- 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
Bellanca BL17-30A
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca BL17
- 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
- N9520E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB), Lubbock, TXTo Q26
- 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; Stall
- 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
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane stalled as the pilot pulled up to clear powerlines following a loss of engine power on final approach. The left wing of the airplane dropped abruptly, and the airplane nosed down impacting the ground in a left wing low attitude, approximately 100 yards short of the landing threshold. The pilot estimated that he had approximately 40 gallons of fuel prior to departing on the 35-nautical mile flight. The pilot reported to a local law enforcement officer that the engine lost power on final approach and 'he was not quick enough to switch the fuel selector to the other tank.' Examination of the fuel system by an FAA inspector revealed that the airplane was equipped with an extended range fuel system which encompassed a total of 7 fuel cells, with 3 cells in each wing and a fuselage tank aft of the baggage compartment. Most of the fuel cells were compromised during impact and evidence of spilled fuel was found on the ground.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadvertent stall while attempting to clear powerlines. Factors were the loss of engine power due to fuel starvation and the pilot's improper use of the fuel tank selector.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW99LA180
- Event ID
- 20001212X19263
- Case number
- FTW99LA180
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1999-07-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9acecfd85de0a6f009c1d6f900a92ba37dfdd4fa6c665271d175deb4beae9356; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:29:05.462Z.