FTW00LA082 · Beech BE-35K
Beech BE-35K · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Lockhart Municipal Airport (50R) to William P. Hobby Airport (HOU)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW00LA082
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech BE-35K
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft BE-35
- 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
- N6089E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lockhart Municipal Airport (50R), Lockhart, TXTo William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), 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
- Approach · IFR initial approach
- 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 › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The single-engine airplane struck residential homes after the pilot reported fuel exhaustion during an ILS approach. The pilot's weather briefing indicated VFR conditions for the cross-country flight; however, the possibility of fog was forecasted. The aircraft departed for the cross-country flight with approximately 2 hours of fuel aboard. Upon arrival at the destination airport, fog prevailed. The pilot requested and received an IFR clearance to another airport. The pilot reported 1 hour of fuel aboard. The pilot was given radar vectors and cleared for the ILS approach, missed the approach, and received radar vectors to try the approach again. The controller cancelled this approach clearance as the airplane was low and left of course. The pilot advised the controller that he was fuel critical and had 'about 25 minutes' of fuel. The controller vectored the aircraft to the final turn to intercept the localizer. Subsequently, the pilot transmitted 'out of fuel.' The controller advised the pilot that the aircraft was 8 miles from the airport. Radar contact was lost when the airplane was 6 miles from the airport at an altitude of 200 feet. The integrity of the fuel tanks was compromised during the impact; however, there was no fuel found in the tanks, and no physical evidence of fuel at the site.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to refuel resulting in fuel exhaustion and a total loss of engine power. Factors were the low ceilings, mist, and the pilot's inability to fly the ILS approach.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW00LA082
- Event ID
- 20001212X20489
- Case number
- FTW00LA082
- 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 2000-02-15.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 47e23985694869422aa823da03be7b3f084a5bd960f5bf0a1aaf44e263dc8f7d; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:18:31.998Z.