LAX89LA282 · Beech B35
Beech B35 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF) to Glendale Municipal Airport (GEU)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA282
- 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 B35
- 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
- N8868A
- Operator
- Hopper, Phillip L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (MYF), San Diego, CATo Glendale Municipal Airport (GEU), Glendale, AZ
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Powerplant › Undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A BEECH B35 COLLIDED WITH TREES DURING A FORCED LANDING, AFTER THE INITIAL TAKEOFF CLIMB. THE PILOT STATED HE LOST POWER AT ABOUT 100 TO 150 FEET AGL. HE MANEUVERED THE AIRPLANE TOWARDS AN OPEN AREA. THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK A TREE VEERED SIDEWAYS, LANDED HARD AND SLID TO A STOP. THE AIRCRAFT WAS SERVICED WITH AUTOMOTIVE FUEL UNDER AN APPROVED SUPPLEMENTAL TYPE CERTIFICATE. A POST ACCIDENT ENGINE EXAM REVEALED NO DAMAGE TO THE POWER PLANT. THE ENGINE WAS TESTED USING FUEL FROM ITS WING TANKS, THE ENGINE FAILURE COULD NOT BE DUPLICATED. THE PILOT STATED HE FELT HE COULD HAVE STARTED THE ENGINE IF HE HAD MORE ALTITUDE.
Probable cause
LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS. FACTORS THAT RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: UNAVALIABLE ALTITUDE, REMEDIAL ACTION NOT POSSIBLE, UNSUITABLE TERRAIN, HIGH VEGETATION, AND THE TREES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA282
- Event ID
- 20001213X29163
- Case number
- LAX89LA282
- 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: ac58bbb71d80df626068d48f9df47378ada471c8b03d6a4a4b8a30248a149dc8; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:50:49.854Z.