ATL88FA137 · Beech C50
Beech C50 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Lumberton, NC to Wrightstown, NJ
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL88FA137
- 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 C50
- 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
- N66L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lumberton, NCTo Wrightstown, NJ
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED A FUEL PUMP PROBLEM TO FAYETTEVILLE TOWER AND REQUESTED LANDING. THE PILOT WAS CLEARED TO LAND ON RUNWAY 04. THE CONTROLLER NOTICED THAT THE PILOT HAD NOT LOWERED THE LANDING GEAR. THE PILOT WAS QUESTIONED CONCERNING THE GEAR. INSTEAD OF CONTINUING THE APPROACH THE PILOT TURNED WEST AND WAS OBSERVED CIRCLING, THEN FALLING BELOW THE TREE LINE. THE WRECKAGE SITE EXAMINATION DISCLOSED THAT THE AIRPLANE CRASHED IN NOSE LOW ATTITUDE ALONG A TREE LINE SOUTH OF AN OPEN FIELD. THE EXAMINATION ALSO DISCLOSED THAT THE FUEL PUMPS ON THE LEFT ENGINE HAD FAILED. THE ENGINE DRIVEN PUMP HAD A SHAFT FAILURE. THE BOOST PUMP HAD AN INTERNAL SHORT. THE LEFT PROPELLER WAS IN THE FEATHER POSITION. THE OPEN FIELD HAD AMPLE SPACE FOR AN EMERGENCY LANDING. THE RIGHT ENGINE WAS STILL CAPABLE OF OPERATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL88FA137
- Event ID
- 20001213X25376
- Case number
- ATL88FA137
- 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: 95177e6c31cc50cb68da212505c2688a5123fe51f4b4470943b53ab6761a2729; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:45:53.571Z.