DEN88FA170 · Beech B23
Beech B23 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Denio Junction Airport (E85) to Raton Municipal Airport / Crews Field (RTN)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN88FA170
- 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
- 1 · 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 B23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 23
- 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
- N4006T
- Operator
- Thomas Brooks Chartered
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Denio Junction Airport (E85), CimarronTo Raton Municipal Airport / Crews Field (RTN), Raton, NM
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 (non-mechanical)
- 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, water › Fuel
- Fuel system, cap › Deteriorated
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, poor
- Pilot in command › Maneuver, improper
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THIS ACCIDENT OCCURRED AS THE PLT WAS ATTEMPTING TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT AFTER A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENG POWER. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT AFTER STARTING THE ENG THE PILOT TAXIED TO THE END OF THE RUNWAY AND THE ENG QUIT. AFTER DRAINING THE SUMPS THE ENG RESTARTED AFTER SEVERAL ATTEMPTS.THE ACFT THEN DEPARTED AND THE WITNESSES LEFT THE AIRPORT. NO ONE SAW THE ACDT. THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND ABOUT 3 HRS LATER. THE ACFT HAD BEEN PARKED AT THE AIRPORT FOR 11 DAYS WITH FUEL TANKS PARTIALLY FILLED. FUEL TANK CAP SEALS WERE DETERIORATED AND SEVERAL RAIN SHOWERS HAD OCCURRED AT THE AIRPORT DURING THE 11 DAYS. WATER WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL TANKS DURING THE WRECKAGE EXAMINATION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT TO PROPERLY PREFLIGHT HIS AIRCRAFT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROCEDURES PROVIDED IN THE OPERATORS HANDBOOK THUS CAUSING THE ENGINE TO LOSE POWER FOLLOWING TAKEOFF DUE TO FUEL CONTAMINATION CAUSED BY WATER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN88FA170
- Event ID
- 20001213X26530
- Case number
- DEN88FA170
- 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: 458c45e6642a86b2e619e4fa6a2515a09af0eb5f612734a9073847e7d85ed3e2; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:37:28.164Z.