CHI00LA176 · Beech B200
Ruand Beech B200 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Lee C Fine Memorial Airport (AIZ) to Lewis University Airport (LOT)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI00LA176
- 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 B200
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 200
- 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
- N780CA
- Operator
- Ruand
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lee C Fine Memorial Airport (AIZ), KAISER LAKE OSA, MOTo Lewis University Airport (LOT), Romeoville, IL
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not verified
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The night before the day of the accident flight the pilot requested that the aircraft's main fuel tanks be filled. The aircraft was not fueled. The morning of the accident, the pilot checked the fuel quantity gauges and noted that they were reading lower than expected. The pilot indicated that there has been a history of inaccurate readings on the fuel gauges. The flight departed for a 45-minute flight to another airport to pick up passengers. The aircraft then departed for Romeoville, Illinois. While descending for landing the pilot felt a surge from the right engine, which subsequently stopped producing power. After completing the checklists, the pilot feathered and secured the engine. Continuing the descent the left engine also stopped producing power. During the forced landing, the pilot was unable to stop the aircraft on the runway. The aircraft overran the end of the runway and went into a ravine, causing substantial damage to the nose and right engine. Approximately 5 gallons of fuel was drained from the aircraft. The manufacturer tested the fuel quantity gauges. The report shows that the gauges were operating correctly for displaying indication for the main fuel tanks, but not for fuel quantity for the auxiliary tanks. Once re-calibrated, the gauges operated within tolerances for all fuel tanks.
Probable cause
the failure of the pilot to obtain fuel and the inadequate preflight planning and preparation by the pilot. Factors to the accident were the fuel exhaustion and the ravine at the end of the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI00LA176
- Event ID
- 20001212X21190
- Case number
- CHI00LA176
- 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: 91286d31ce9dd35fda8df3203b0945afdd6d204cb41f71c2c9f1055a695b85d0; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:11:00.005Z.