SEA89FA157 · Beech C35
Beech C35 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Sandy River Airport (03S) to Stark's Twin Oaks Airpark (7S3)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA89FA157
- 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 C35
- 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
- N5916C
- Operator
- Wesley, Greene S. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sandy River Airport (03S), Sandy, ORTo Stark's Twin Oaks Airpark (7S3), Hillsboro, OR
- 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 · climb to 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 (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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, annual inspection, poor
- Throttle/power lever, linkage › Disconnected
- Throttle/power lever, linkage › Not safetied
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ENGINE LOST POWER SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF AND A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE IN AN OPEN FIELD. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN AND CARTWHEELED. THE BOLT CONNECTING THE THROTTLE ARM TO THE THROTTLE ROD END WAS MISSING. A BOLT IDENTIFIED AS THE PROPER TYPE FOR THIS CONNECTION WAS FOUND LAYING AGAINST THE FIREWALL. THE BOLT IS SUPPOSDE TO BE SECURED WITH A CASTELLATED NUT AND A COTTER PIN. NEITHER THE NUT NOR THE COTTER PIN WAS FOUND. THE BOLT WAS NOT DAMAGED.AN ANNUAL INSPECTION WAS PERFORMED 5 FLIGHT HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE OPEN FIELD USED FOR THE FORCED LANDING IS SURROUNDED BY 100 FT TREES, WITH BARBED WIRE FENCES 300 TO 400 FT APART. INITIAL GROUND IMPACT MARK WAS LOCATED 64 INCHES FROM A FENCE.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO THE SEPARATION OF THE BOLT CONNECTING THE THROTTLE ROD TO THE CARBURETOR THROTTLE ARM AND AN INADEQUATE ANNUAL INSPECTION PERFORMED 5 FLIGHT HOURS PRIOR TO THE OCCURRENCE. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE OBSTRUCTIONS IN AND AROUND THE ONLY OPEN FIELD AVAILABLE FOR THE FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA89FA157
- Event ID
- 20001213X29253
- Case number
- SEA89FA157
- 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: 5d93a1e3b7de160dfd7e2ab2115f1489d471391ac3c2adf58c73f4c461363d4e; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:10:54.832Z.