SEA87IA139 · Beech 55
Beech 55 · Incident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Yellowstone Airport (WYS) to Idaho Falls Regional Airport (IDA)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA87IA139
- 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
- Incident
- 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 55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 55
- 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
- N321MB
- Operator
- Karen Pfeiffer
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Yellowstone Airport (WYS), W.YELLOWSTONE, MTTo Idaho Falls Regional Airport (IDA), Idaho Falls, ID
- 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 · descent
- 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)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Fuel system › Exhaustion
- Fuel system, fuel quantity float/sensor › Incorrect
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING DESCENT FOR LANDING, WITH BOTH ENGINES BEING FED FROM THE RIGHT MAIN FUEL TANK, A LOSS OF POWER OCCURRED DUE TO FUEL EXHAUSTION. A FORCED LANDING WAS MADE ON A WHEAT FIELD AND DURING LANDING ROLLOUT THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK A DITCH. INVESTIGATION REVEALED NO FUEL REMAINING ON BOARD IN EITHER THE AUX TANKS OR THE MAIN TANKS. HOWEVER, WITH THE MASTER SWITCH ON, THE RIGHT MAIN FUEL GAUGE READ MORE THAN 1/4 TANK REMAINING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA87IA139
- Event ID
- 20001213X31657
- Case number
- SEA87IA139
- 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: 44254d1fea3f2327e7857a27aa8a1f5eeb90180c8375c407113b4d4d6a21ca48; retrieved 2026-09-23T12:51:13.232Z.