MKC90LA033 · Beech A24R
Beech A24R · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Black Hills Airport-Clyde Ice Field (SPF) to Saint Cloud Regional Airport (STC)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC90LA033
- 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 A24R
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 24
- 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
- N8074R
- Operator
- Muhs, David P. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Black Hills Airport-Clyde Ice Field (SPF), Spearfish, SDTo Saint Cloud Regional Airport (STC), ST CLOUD, MN
- 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 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
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHEN THE X-COUNTRY BEGAN, THE VACUUM SYS & COMM RADIOS WERE INOP, BUT OTHERWISE, THE INITIAL LEG OF THE FLT WAS NORMAL. THE PLT CHECKED THAT THE ACFT LGTS WERE OPERG FOR THE RTRN FLT, BUT HE NOTED THE FUEL GAUGES INDCD EMPTY (ALTHOUGH THE ACFT HAD BEEN FULLY SVCD WITH FUEL). AT ABT SUNSET ON THE RTRN FLT, THE ELECTRICAL SYS BCM INOP & THE NORMAL LNDG GEAR EXTN SYS & FLAPS WOULD NOT OPERATE. ABOUT 15 MIN LATER, AS THE ACFT WAS NEARING ITS DESTN, THE ENG LOST POWER & THE PLT MANUALLY EXTENDED THE LNDG GEAR, USING HIS FLASHLIGHT TO MONITOR THE AIRSPEED. THE PLT STATED THAT HE SWITCHED THE FUEL SELECTOR & TRIED TO RESTART THE ENG, BUT WAS UNABLE. SUBSEQUENTLY, A CRASH LNDG WAS MADE AT THE TOP OF A RIVER BANK AT NIGHT. DRG AN INVESTIGATION, THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS FOUND POSITIONED TO AN EMPTY TANK & THE OTHER TANK STILL CONTAINED USABLE FUEL. THE PLT HAD ACCUMULATED ABT 7 HRS OF FLT TIME IN THIS MAKE & MODEL OF ACFT, ALL ON THE DAY OF THE ACDNT.
Probable cause
IMPROPER USE OF THE FUEL TANK SELECTOR BY THE PILOT AND HIS IMPROPER USE OF EMERGENCY PROCEDURES, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL STARVATION AFTER A FUEL TANK HAD EMPTIED. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE: INOPERATIVE FUEL QUANTITY GAUGES, PILOT'S OPERATION WITH KNOWN DEFICIENCIES IN THE AIRCRAFT, DARK NIGHT, TOTAL LOSS OF ELECTRICAL POWER, AND LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR A FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC90LA033
- Event ID
- 20001213X29859
- Case number
- MKC90LA033
- 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: d161bea3d4c4f2d8e4f2f646db3f31e05fab901597538f74a1a627447cb3b2ee; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:59:08.939Z.