LAX89LA047 · Beech H35
Beech H35 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Red Bluff Municipal Airport (RBL)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA047
- 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 H35
- 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
- N5594D
- Operator
- Hill, David · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Red Bluff Municipal Airport (RBL), Red Bluff, 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
- 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
- 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
- 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 › Fuel tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT ORIGINATED AT HAYWARD, CA, WITH A STOP AT SAN CARLOS, CA AND CORNING, CA. THE PLT'S DESTINATION WAS THE RED BLUFF ARPT (RBL). THE PLT REPORTED THAT WHEN HE DEPARTED HAYWARD BOTH MAIN FUEL TANKS WERE FULL. HE FLEW TO SAN CARLOS WHERE HE PICKED UP THREE PAX AND THEN FLEW TO CORNING. THE PLT STATED THAT HE FLEW FOR A TOTAL OF 1.2 HOURS BEFORE LANDING AT CORNING. THE PLT STATED THAT HE DID NOT VISUALLY CHECK THE FUEL TANKS PRIOR TO DEARTURE FROM CORNING. THE PLTTOOKOFF USING THE RIGHT MAIN FUEL TANK. THE ENGINE LOST POWER JUST AFTER TAKEOFF AND THE ACFT CRASHED. EXAM OF THE FUEL TANKS DISCLOSED NO EVIDENCE OF FUEL IN THE RIGHT MAIN FUEL TANK. THERE WERE ABOUT 14 GALS FOUND IN THE LEFT MAIN TANK AND ABOUT 5 GALS IN THE LEFT AUX TANK. AT THE TIME OF THE EXAM THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF FUEL LEAKAGE OF THE FUEL TANKS OR IN THE ENG AREA. IF THE RIGHT MAIN TANK IS SELECTED, THE AMOUNT OF FUEL BURNED IN ADDITION TO THE FUEL USED BY THE FUEL INJECTION SYST (ABOUT 10 GPH) WILL BE REMOVED FROM RGHT TNK. THE EXCESS FUEL WILL BE RET TO THE LFT MAIN TANK ONLY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA047
- Event ID
- 20001213X27281
- Case number
- LAX89LA047
- 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 1988-11-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: bbe7999762acfa63b4934a6d5fbe7c9d05a4867dcc612b0baedc243bb3041694; retrieved 2026-09-23T08:23:50.029Z.