LAX85FA251 · Beech A-36
Beech A-36 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Hayward Executive Airport (HWD) to Merced Regional Macready Field (MCE)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX85FA251
- 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
- 1 · 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 A-36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft A-36
- 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
- N2022B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hayward Executive Airport (HWD)To Merced Regional Macready Field (MCE), Merced, CA
- 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
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Aircraft performance, turn capability › Exceeded
- Fuel system, pump › Failure, total
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE ATCT TAPES, 3 MINS ELAPSED BETWEEN THE TIME THE ACFT CALLED FOR TAXI FROM PARKING TO READY FOR TAKEOFF AT THE ACTIVE RWY. JUST AFTER LIFTOFF THE ACFT EXPERIENCED A 'MISSING' & 'BACKFIRING' ENGINE AS REPORTED BY WITNESSES. PLT RADIOED THE TOWER THAT HE WAS HAVING PROBLEMS, WAS RETURNING TO THE ARPT & 'MIGHT HAVE TO MAKE A 180.' AT ABOUT 200 FT AGL ON A CLOSE CROSSWIND LEG, WITNESSES SAW THE ACFT MAKE A TIGHT STEEPLY BANKED RT TURN TO LINE UP WITH A TAXIWAY JUST PRIOR TO THE ACFT ABRUPTLY PITCHING DOWN, ROLLING RT & IMPACTING ON GOLF COURSE FAIRWAY. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT THE ENGINE DRIVEN FUEL PUMP DID NOT WORK WHEN INSTALLED IN A TEST STAND. BOTH RUST & CORROSION DEPOSITS WERE FOUND IN THE PUMP & FUEL METERING UNITS. THE ACFT HAD ACCUMULATED 909 HRS IN 10 YRS TIME WITHOUT AN ENGINE OR COMPONENT OVERHAUL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX85FA251
- Event ID
- 20001214X36489
- Case number
- LAX85FA251
- 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: ad35c9167a61eb425b1cbd6a2928d4766970c086c9bc0f2ca7289e47437f3d30; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:01:48.387Z.