ATL89LA121 · Aero Commander 685
Aero Commander 685 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) to Daniel Field (DNL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89LA121
- 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
Aero Commander 685
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 685
- 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
- N685RB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), Raleigh, NCTo Daniel Field (DNL), Augusta, GA
- 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 (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
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Fuel boost pump selector position, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Mixture, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT REPORTED THAT DURING CRUISE FLIGHT AN ENG BEGAN RUNNING ROUGH. HE PUT THE FUEL BOOST PUMP SWITCH IN THE HIGH BOOST POSITION AND ADVANCED THE THROTTLE, MIXTURE, AND PROP LEVERS TO MAX. THIS RESULTED IN A LOSS OF PWR ON BOTH ENGS. THE ACFT TOUCHED DOWN HARD SHORT OF THE RUNWAY DURING THE FORCED LANDING AND COLLIDED WITH TREES. THE ACFT FLT MANUAL STATED THAT THE MIXTURE MUST BE ADJUSTED AT REDUCED POWER SETTINGS TO AVOID A RICH MIXTURE. THE EMERG PROCEDURES IN THE FLT MANUAL CAUTIONS THAT A ROUGH RUNNING ENG MAY BE DUE TO TOO RICH OF A MIXTURE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF THE MIXTURE CONTROLS WHICH RESULTED IN ENGINE ROUGHNESS AND THE FAILURE TO PROPERLY EXECUTE THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURE FOR A ROUGH ENGINE BY PLACING THE FUEL BOOST PUMP SWITCH IN THE LOW POSITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89LA121
- Event ID
- 20001213X28027
- Case number
- ATL89LA121
- 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: c0d9b85dcc3bc3e10f8f3b50236ebeeb00a31f29bf27cddb01cd5094a8d9d7da; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:15:17.419Z.