CHI87DEC04 · Beech S35
Beech S35 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Cherry Capital Airport (TVC) to Oakland County International Airport (PTK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI87DEC04
- 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 S35
- 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
- N9011S
- Operator
- Gary L Smith · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cherry Capital Airport (TVC), Traverse City, MITo Oakland County International Airport (PTK), Pontiac, MI
- 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 · VFR go-around
- 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
- 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
- Stall/spin
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACFT WAS MAKING A LOW PASS ABOUT 200 FT AGL OVER RWY 27L TO ALLOW ATCT PERSONNEL TO INSPECT LANDING GEAR POSITION AFTER REPORTING LANDING GEAR DIFFICULTIES. AFTER TWR PERSONNEL INFORMED THE PLT THAT THE GEAR APPEARED TO BE DOWN, THE PLT REQUESTED TO LAND ON RWY 09L. AS THE ACFT PASSED ABEAM OF THE ATCT, WITNESSES SAID THE ENGINE STOPPED. THE ACFT THEN MADE A SHARP TURN TO THE RIGHT, TOWARD RWY 09L, APPEARED TO STALL, AND DESCENDED TO THE GROUND. INSPECTION OF THE ENGINEDID NOT REVEAL ANY MALFUNCTIONS. APPROX 2,200 FEET OF RWY 27L REMAINING, IF PILOT HAD ELECTED TO LAND STRAIGHT-AHEAD AFTER POWER LOSS. EIGHT GALLONS FUEL REMAINING IN LEFT WING; RIGHT WING FUEL TANK DAMAGED AND LEAKING POST-CRASH. FUEL SELECTOR ON LEFT MAIN TANK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI87DEC04
- Event ID
- 20001213X31421
- Case number
- CHI87DEC04
- 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: d8f7dad6cfe7c45be29f51b1f89899de14b9ecef6024d22bac8890d6435be339; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:05:22.583Z.