FTW87FA045 · Beech 65-80
Beech 65-80 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport (BRO) to General Servando Canales International Airport (MAM)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW87FA045
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech 65-80
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 65
- 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
- N1590S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport (BRO), Brownsville, TXTo General Servando Canales International Airport (MAM), Matamoros
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- 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 › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Brownsville, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
COMMERCIAL PILOT DEPARTED BROWNSVILLE, TX (BRO) ON SPECIAL VFR FLIGHT PLAN. DURING INITIAL CLIMB, AT APPROXIMATELY 300 FT AGL BOTH ENGINES QUIT DUE TO FUEL STARVATION. FORCED LANDING WAS MADE TO UNIMPROVED FIELD. AIRCRAFT SUSTAINED SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. PILOT AND THREE PASSENGER WERE UNINJURED. AIRCRAFT HAD APPROXIMATELY 39 GALLONS OF FUEL IN TWO AUXILIARY FUEL TANKS. PILOT WAS ATTEMPTING TO REACH FUEL STOP IN MEXICO IN COMPLIANCE WITH COMPANY POLICY. PILOT STATED THAT HE EXPERIECED A SINGLE ENGINE LANDING IN AN UNIMPROVED FIELD DUE TO FUEL STARVATION WHILE ATTEMPTING TO REACH FUEL STOP IN MEXICO ON ONE OTHER OCCASION. IN BOTH INSTANCES REVENUE PASSENGERS WERE ABOARD THE AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW87FA045
- Event ID
- 20001213X30073
- Case number
- FTW87FA045
- 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: bf43037873ef00cdeb77674d7b2415d3606c25fc7c13be7bb051c61883627e2f; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:44:09.309Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure. The narrative states the pilot "DEPARTED BROWNSVILLE, TX (BRO) ON SPECIAL VFR FLIGHT PLAN"; the departure was not recorded.