SEA99LA127 · Beech D17S
Beech D17S · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Leipzig–Altenburg Airport (AOC) to Leipzig–Altenburg Airport (AOC)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA99LA127
- 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 D17S
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 17
- 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
- N217SD
- Operator
- Todd J. Therp · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Leipzig–Altenburg Airport (AOC)To Leipzig–Altenburg Airport (AOC)
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot had just completed a flyby at a local air show and was preparing to land. While on final approach to runway 24, the pilot crabbed the aircraft to compensate for a cross wind. During the crab, the aircraft's engine began to run rough and eventually quit. The fuel quantity gauge for the main fuel tank (the selected fuel tank) read one-quarter full. The pilot switched from the main fuel tank to the full auxiliary tank and cycled the primer, but was unable to restart the engine. The aircraft touched down on the edge of a gravel pit, approximately 200 feet short of the runway and nosed over. The pilot estimated that the aircraft's main fuel tank contained approximately one gallon of fuel at the time of the accident. The pilot reported no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the aircraft at the time of the accident. There was no evidence to indicate a preexisting fuel leak.
Probable cause
Fuel starvation which resulted in a loss of power. The pilot's improper management of fuel was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA99LA127
- Event ID
- 20001212X19381
- Case number
- SEA99LA127
- 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: 6865082f6b1747aa75d07240013e675029acf15b3bf86b21a6508d5026dd318e; retrieved 2026-09-22T14:23:52.753Z.