LAX88FA294 · Beech A36TC
Beech A36TC · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Rogers Field (O05) to Buchanan Field (CCR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX88FA294
- 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 A36TC
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N1830R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rogers Field (O05), Chester, CATo Buchanan Field (CCR), Concord, CA
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not performed
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT SUSTAINED A LOSS OF ENG POWER WHILE THE PLT WAS LEVELING THE ACFT AT 9,500 FT. THE PLT STATED HE WAS AFRAID TO ATTEMPT AN AERIAL RESTART DUE TO FEAR OF DAMAGING THE ENG. THE PLT LOWERED THE LANDING GEAR AND THE ACFT TOUCHED DOWN ON A 60 DEG ROCKY SLOPE ABOUT 500 FT SHORT OF A FLAT GRAVEL AND MUD SAND BAR. THE PLT LACKED DOCUMENTED EMERG PROCEDURE TRAINING AND BIENNIAL FLIGHT REVIEW. POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION REVEALED THE FUEL INLET FITTING WAS PARTIALLY BLOCKED BY A MASS OF 'SLUDGE'; HOWEVER, THE BYPASS FITTING WAS UNRESTRICTED. NO OTHER FAILURE/MALFUNCTION WITH EITHER THE ENG OR ACFT WAS NOTED.
Probable cause
AN UNDETERMINED LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AND THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S APPREHENSION IN UNDERTAKING THE APPROPRIATE EMERGENCY ACTIONS TO ATTEMPT AN AERIAL RESTART. CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S LACK OF EXPERIENCE AND INADEQUATE TRAINING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX88FA294
- Event ID
- 20001213X26589
- Case number
- LAX88FA294
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1988-08-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8a51e709e3369bbbc65afec78d732de294578bf9454a4f10aec29e424c049372; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:04:57.044Z.