FTW90FA069 · Beech C-90
Beech C-90 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Teterboro Airport (TEB) to Burlington, NC
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW90FA069
- 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
- 2 · 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 C-90
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft C-90
- 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
- N110LT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Teterboro Airport (TEB), TETERBORO, NJTo Burlington, NC
- 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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 starvation; Stall
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, transfer pump › Not engaged
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Burlington, NC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT TRANSMITTED ON UNICOM THAT HE WAS ON FINAL FOR 24. FOLLOWING A DOUBLE FUEL STARVATION POWER LOSS THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED NOSE LOW WITH TREES AND TERRAIN ABOUT 2.6 MILES FROM RUNWAY 24. LAST FUELING OCCURRED ON THE PREVIOUS DAY AT ALBERMARLE, NC, THE PILOT'S PRIMARY SOURCE OF FUEL, 50 MILES FROM BURLINGTON. THE FLIGHT PROCEEDED TO BURLINGTON, TETERBORO, AND WAS RETURNING TO BURLINGTON. TOTAL ESTIMATED FLIGHT TIME WAS 4 HOURS 32 MINUTES. FUEL BURN WAS CALCULATED TO BE 361 GALLONS. USABLE FUEL WAS 384 GALLONS AND 24 GALLONS WERE RECOVERED FROM THE RIGHT CENTER TANK. IF THE FUEL TRANSFER PUMP DOES NOT OPERATE 28 GALLONS WILL BE UNUSABLE. THAT PUMP WAS FOUND IN THE OFF POSITION. NO FUEL SPILLAGE OCCURRED AT THE SCENE. ON 2/8/90 THE PILOT PURCHASED 361 GALLONS OF FUEL FOR N110LT. LOWER FUEL PRICES AT THE FAVORED LOCATION WERE THE PILOT'S REASON FOR FUELING THERE. EXAMINATION OF ENGINES, PROPELLERS, FUEL PUMPS, AND OTHER RELATIVE COMPONENTS DID NOT REVEAL ANY SIGNIFICANT DISCREPANCY.
Probable cause
THE DOUBLE ENGINE POWER LOSS DUE TO FUEL STARVATION, THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO FOLLOW PROCEDURES AND DIRECTIVES BY NOT ENGAGING THE RIGHT FUEL TRANSFER PUMP, AND THE INADVERTENT STALL DURING THE FORCED LANDING APPROACH. A FACTOR WAS THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO REFUEL BEFORE ADEQUATE FUEL RESERVES WERE EXHAUSTED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW90FA069
- Event ID
- 20001212X22561
- Case number
- FTW90FA069
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 27160dd8bab3b344116431f62ebdaf425bd38d09da11d4111bdac16320e78f2b; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:57:36.881Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states "THE FLIGHT PROCEEDED TO BURLINGTON, TETERBORO, AND WAS RETURNING TO BURLINGTON" and the pilot reported "ON FINAL FOR 24" before the airplane struck terrain 2.6 miles from runway 24; the destination was not recorded.