CHI90FA050 · Beech 60
Automation Devices Beech 60 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Erie International Tom Ridge Field (ERI) to Erie, PA
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90FA050
- 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
- 2 · 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 60
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 60
- 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
- N478AD
- Operator
- Automation Devices
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Erie International Tom Ridge Field (ERI), Erie, PATo Erie, PA
- 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
- Approach
- 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; Stall
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT DEPARTED ON A LOCAL VFR FLIGHT AT 1117. AT 1154 HE CONTACTED ERIE TOWER FOR LANDING. HE THEN ADVISED THE TOWER AT 1159 THAT HE HAD FEATHERED THE RIGHT ENGINE. ONE MINUTE LATER HE REPORTED THAT THE LEFT ENGINE WAS '...KICKING OUT.' THE AIRCRAFT STALLED INTO A HOUSE 6 MILES FROM THE AIRPORT, AND JUST SHORT OF THE SHORELINE OF LAKE ERIE. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE RIGHT WING. 7 GALS WERE DRAINED FROM THE LEFT WING; NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE LEFT ENG. RIGHT FUEL QUANTITY C/B SECURED IN OUT POSITION BY WIRE TIE; SEVERAL BURNED COMPONENTS FOUND ON BACK OF RIGHT FUEL QUANTITY GAGE PC BOARD. MOST RECENT RECORD OF FUEL PURCHASE WHICH COULD BE FOUND WAS FOR MAY 25, 1989. A POCKET DIARY WAS FOUND IN THE WRECKAGE WHICH CONTAINED ENTRIES OF FLIGHT TIMES AND FUEL QUANTITY NOTATIONS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ASSURE THAT THE AIRCRAFT HAD AN ADEQUATE SUPPLY OF FUEL ON BOARD FOR THE INTENDED FLIGHT. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO THE ACCIDENT WERE AN INOPERATIVE RIGHT FUEL QUANTITY GAGE WHICH RESULTED IN INACCURATE FUEL CONSUMPTION CALCULATIONS, AND AN INADVERTENT STALL AS THE PILOT ATTEMPTRD TO REACH A LAKE SHORE FOR AN EMERGENCY LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90FA050
- Event ID
- 20001213X29923
- Case number
- CHI90FA050
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 200940cd53c101e1b6da7e5a6c11928d61cf2176258cee6a579fe2c3f4109fc9; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:03:06.693Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states "THE PILOT DEPARTED ON A LOCAL VFR FLIGHT" from Erie and "AT 1154 HE CONTACTED ERIE TOWER FOR LANDING" before both engines lost power; the destination was not recorded.