LAX01LA022 · Beech 35B33
Beech 35B33 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Mogollon Airpark (AZ82) to L15 · Henderson, NV
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX01LA022
- 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 35B33
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 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
- N8587M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mogollon Airpark (AZ82), HEBREN OVERGUAR, AZTo L15 · Henderson, NV
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not complied with
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Bullhead City, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot made a power-off landing about 1/2 mile short of the runway in rough terrain, which resulted in substantial damage. The pilot was abeam the airport in cruise at 4,500 feet when the engine lost power. The pilot was unable to restart the engine, and made a dead stick landing. The wings had been removed during recovery. The recovery agent drained about 8 ounces of fuel from the left wing, and 28 gallons of fuel from the right wing. Each tank held 40 gallons of fuel (37 gallons useable). The top spark plugs exhibited characteristics of normal operation. Investigators removed the valve covers and manually rotated the engine. They obtained thumb compression on all cylinders; the valves moved in sequence and all appeared to have the same lift; the accessories rotated freely; and all ignition leads sparked. The throttle, propeller, and mixture controls all operated stiffly through their full range of motion. The fuel tanks were not compromised and the vents were open. The fuel selector valve was at an intermediate position about 0.5 inches clockwise from the right tank position, and the boost pump switch was in the off position. Investigators connected an auxiliary battery to the airplane battery and hooked up a fuel supply to the right wing fuel line. They disconnected the fuel inlet line to the fuel manifold distribution valve. With the mixture and throttle levers in, there was no fuel flow. They turned the boost pump on and a steady stream of fuel spurt out. The fuel flow gauge showed less than 5 gallons per hour initially, but peaked at 16 gallons per hour. The owner's manual directed pilot's who experienced a loss of engine power to turn the boost pump ON.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate in-flight planning that resulted in fuel starvation and a loss of engine power, and his failure to engage the fuel boost pump in accordance with the owner's manual. A factor was rough terrain in the forced landing area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX01LA022
- Event ID
- 20001212X22198
- Case number
- LAX01LA022
- 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: 118bcb7d365203f9423d9ab1b830338a64bf10df9aab0d350ddb55cbdec636a0; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:20:56.867Z.