BFO85FA051 · Bellanca 17-30A
Bellanca 17-30A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO85FA051
- 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
- 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
Bellanca 17-30A
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 17
- 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
- N93533
- Operator
- William D. Breneman · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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
- 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 contamination; Wire, transmission
- 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 › Contamination
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Fuel system, cap › Loose
- Fuel system, drain › Inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BFR FLT, THE PLT OBTAINED FUEL SAMPLES THRU THE REMOTELY OPERATED GASCOLATOR, BUT DETECTED NO WATER. NO SAMPLES COULD BEDRAWN DIRECTLY FM THE WING OR FUSELAGE TANKS SINCE THEY HAD NO QUICK DRAINS INSTALLED. A PWR LOSS OCCURRED DRG TAKEOFF AT 50 TO 100 FT AGL. THE PLT SWITCHED FUEL TANKS (FROM L TO R MAIN) & ENGAGED THE BOOST PUMP. ENG PWR RETURNED AS THE ACFT STRUCK UTILITY LINES NEAR THE END OF THE RWY. THE ACFT THEN CRASHED & HIT A FENCE BFR COMING TO REST. A SIMILAR PWRLOSS OCCURRED APRX 3 WKS EARLIER. MAINT PSNL FOUND A LOOSE L TANK FUEL CAP WHICH COULD HAVE ALLOWED WATER TO LEAK INTO THIS TANK. A MECHANIC ADJUSTED THE FUEL CAP FOR A TIGHT FIT. THE ACFT WAS THEN FLOWN TWICE, PRIOR TO THE ACDNT, WITH NO EVIDENCE OF WATER IN THE FUEL OR OTHER DISCREPANCIES. HOWEVER, AFTER THE ACDNT, DIRECT ACCESS TO THE L MAIN TANK REVEALED THE PRESENCE OF WATER WHICH WAS COLORED PINK. PINK STAINS WERE ALSO PRESENT ON THE TANK WALL ABOVE THE AFT FUEL OUTLET PORT. THE OUTLET PORTS OF THE INTERCONNECTED MAIN TANK CELLS WERE 3/8 TO 1/2 INCH ABOVE THE TANK BOTTOMS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO85FA051
- Event ID
- 20001214X36677
- Case number
- BFO85FA051
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1985-06-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 634f5ef958a82663be0cde7d0fe00f7b7260fb442d3a0fd71e5b2258b9e2611a; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:47:36.992Z.