MIA00LA079 · Beech D50E
Beech D50E · Accident: fire while taxiing
From Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR) to Witham Field (SUA)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA00LA079
- 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 D50E
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 50
- 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
- N14VU
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)To Witham Field (SUA), Stuart, FL
- 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
- Taxi
- 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
- Fire
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that after landing, all four fuel tanks were filled. He performed a preflight to the airplane and started both engines with no discrepancies noted. While taxiing to takeoff he performed a flight control check of the ailerons and while looking at the left aileron, he noted discoloration of the paint on the upper wing surface outboard of the engine nacelle. He requested fire rescue assistance from the ground controller and taxied to an open area of the ramp, where he secured the airplane. After exiting the airplane he noted fire at the outboard fuel tank vent that was leaking fuel. He discharged a hand held fire extinguisher he obtained from the airplane and nearly extinguished the fire. The airport fire rescue then responded and extinguished the fire using only water. According to the airport fire department incident report, vented fuel ignited by exhaust manifold was cited as the 'preliminary cause' of the fire.
Probable cause
The on-ground fire caused by fuel flowing out the fuel vent and near the exhaust of the left engine resulting in the on-ground fire and substantial damage to the airplane. A finding in the investigation was that all four fuel tanks had been filled before the pilot started the engines for the flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA00LA079
- Event ID
- 20001212X20418
- Case number
- MIA00LA079
- 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: 76f876e06afeb15bf4969323ec27505a21550f55315d3153d9a00aeea43217e4; retrieved 2026-09-22T13:18:25.933Z.