FTW99LA241 · Cessna 414
Cessna 414 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From E38 to Quahadi Ranch Airport (17XS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW99LA241
- 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 414
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 414
- 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
- N67JM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From E38To Quahadi Ranch Airport (17XS), LAJITAS, TX
- 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
- Partial 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fuel system, electric boost pump › Output high
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot had the main and auxiliary fuel tanks filled and performed an abbreviated preflight prior to departing the Alpine Airport. The pilot did not perform an engine run-up prior to takeoff. The pilot stated that while the airplane was climbing through 100 feet agl, the left engine 'started to surge.' The pilot reported that he knew the airplane would not be able to climb at field elevation with one engine inoperative. The pilot switched the left engine's boost pump from low to high; however, the left engine continued to surge while the airplane lost altitude. The pilot initiated a forced landing with the landing gear and flaps retracted and the left propeller unfeathered. The airplane impacted the ground left wing tip first and a fire erupted, which damaged the left wing and left side of the fuselage. The left engine's spark plugs were found covered with thick black soot. The left engine's magnetos were rotated using an electric hand-held drill, and the left magneto did not produce any spark and the right magneto produced a spark in three of its six distributor cap posts. The left magneto's primary winding resistance and capacitor leakage were found to be beyond the manufacturer's specified limits. The internal components of both magnetos were covered in a dark oil and debris. The maximum takeoff weight for the accident airplane was 6,350 pounds; however, the takeoff weight at the time of the accident was calculated to be 6,509 pounds. The aircraft's single engine performance charts indicated that the airplane would obtain a 29 fpm climb at maximum gross weight with the inoperative engine feathered. The pilot operating handbook's supplement section indicated that the auxiliary fuel pump should only be used when the engine-driven fuel pump failed. A caution statement states in bold print, 'If the auxiliary fuel pump switches are placed in the HIGH position with the engine-driven fuel pump(s) operating normally, total loss of engine power may occur.'
Probable cause
The pilot's improper use of the emergency fuel boost pump, which resulted in excessive fuel flow to the engine and subsequent total loss of left engine power. Factor's were the high density altitude, the pilot exceeding the airplane's weight and balance, the partial loss of left engine power as a result of the faulty magnetos, and the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection by not performing an engine run-up.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW99LA241
- Event ID
- 20001212X19531
- Case number
- FTW99LA241
- 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: 057f20457af7d4622d0ea8150a94ba94d6d93c4e056eb799974d95b3bee73966; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:24:41.063Z.