BFO89FA062 · Beech 77
Piedmont Aviation Services Beech 77 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Norfolk International Airport (ORF) to South Boston, VA
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO89FA062
- 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 77
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 77
- 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
- N18257
- Operator
- Piedmont Aviation Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Norfolk International Airport (ORF), Norfolk, VATo South Boston, VA
- 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
- 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 exhaustion
- 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
- Fuel system, cap › Not secured
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Cluster Springs, VA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE STU PILOT WAS EN ROUTE WHEN SHE RADIOED THE ENGINE WAS LOSING POWER. ACCORDING TO ANOTHER PLT, THE STU PLT SOUNDED PANIC-STRIKEN DURING THE TRANSMISSION. THE ACFT CRASHED INTO A SMALL POND, SURROUNDED BY AN OPEN FIELD. DAMAGE TO THE ACFT, INDICATED THE ACFT STRUCK THE POND IN A STEEP NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE. EXAMINATION OF THE ACFT DID NOT REVEAL EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION. INSPECTION OF THE LEFT WING SURFACE BEHIND THE FUEL TANK FILLER NECK, INDICATED THE FUEL CAP WAS UNFASTENED AND LAYING ON THE WING INFLIGHT. A FLIGHT TEST IN A SIMILAR ACFT WITH AN UNFASTENED LEFT FUEL CAP REVEALED THE CAP MOVED AFT AND WAS HELD BY ITS CHAIN. DURING THE TEST, FUEL SIPHONED FROM THE LEFT FUEL TANK. FUEL PERFORMANCE CALCULATIONS INDICATED THE ACFT WOULD HAVE USED UP TO 13 GAL DURING THE FLIGHT. IT HAD A 30 GAL FUEL CAPACITY, 15 GAL PER TANK.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO PERFORM AN ADEQUATE PREFLIGHT WHICH RESULTED IN AN UNLATCHED FUEL FILLER CAP. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MONITOR THE FUEL SUPPLY DURING THE FLIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO89FA062
- Event ID
- 20001213X28734
- Case number
- BFO89FA062
- 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: f6f4b008c280aa4cd88d5c729bf9b4e7eddc6c7f1db0f42c4234708c4dd0ddbf; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:13:27.954Z.