NYC90LA026 · Beech A24R
Beech A24R · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Brookhaven Calabro Airport (HWV) to Igor I Sikorsky Memorial Airport (BDR)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC90LA026
- 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
- N24569
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brookhaven Calabro Airport (HWV), Shirley, NYTo Igor I Sikorsky Memorial Airport (BDR), Bridgeport, CT
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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 › Throttle/power control, not possible
- Throttle/power lever, cable › Failure, total
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Bridgeport, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE TO BRIDGEPORT, CT, THE PILOT WAS PERFORMING HIS LANDING CHECKS, WHEN HE PLACED THE MIXTURE CONTROL TO FULL RICH AND TWISTED THE VERNIER TO ENSURE IT WAS ALL THE WAY IN. HE HEARD A SNAP AND PULLED THE CONTROL OUT 1/2 TO 3/4 INCH TO SEE IF IT WAS STILL FUNCTIONAL. AT THAT TIME, THE ENGINE POWER DESCREASED TO APPROXIMATELY A FLIGHT IDLE CONDITION. THE THROTTLE AND PROP CONTROL APPEARED TO WORK NORMALLY. BRIDGEPORT TOWER WAS INFORMED THE PLT WAS GOING TO DITCH THE AIRPLANE. DURING THE DITCHING, THE SHOULDER HARNESS PREVENTED INJURY. THE PILOT USED HIS BRIEFCASE AND TURNED HIS LUNCH COOLER UPSIDE DOWN FOR FLOATATION IN THE WATER. THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT RECOVERED.
Probable cause
THE AIRPLANE ENGINE THROTTLE CABLE FAILED AND THE ENGINE POWER REDUCED TO IDLE OVER LONG ISLAND SOUND, RESULTING IN THE DITCHING OF THE AIRPLANE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC90LA026
- Event ID
- 20001213X29869
- Case number
- NYC90LA026
- 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: d92ef329176fc6cd3a0583ace71d0304c8670c14bca9ec45c778059def5d87aa; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:59:25.314Z.