DEN85LA151 · Beech B35
Beech B35 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Chinook, MT to Spearfish, SD
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN85LA151
- 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
Beech B35
- 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
- N5099C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chinook, MTTo Spearfish, SD
- 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 · cruise
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ABOUT 10 MIN AFTER TAKEOFF, THE ACFT WAS DAMAGED DURING A FORCED LANDING AFTER THE ENG BEGAN SPUTTERING & THEN LOST POWER. THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE MADE A NORMAL TAKEOFF WITH THE COWL FLAPS OPEN & THE MIXTURE RICH. AFTER CLIMBING ABOUT 1100 FT (TO 3500 FT MSL), HE CLOSED THE COWL FLAPS & LEANED THE MIXTURE SLIGHTLY. ABOUT 2 TO 3 MIN LATER, THE ENG BEGAN SPUTTERING. THE PLT OBSERVED THE OIL TEMP RISING. HE SAID HE OPENED THE COWL FLAPS, TURNED ON THE CARB HEAT, CHANGED THE FUEL SEL & CHECKED THE MAGNETOS. THE ENG LOST ALL POWER & THE PLT ATTEMPTED TO LAND ON A ROAD. HOWEVER, HE MANEUVERED TO AVOID POWER LINES THEN ELECTED TO LAND IN A FIELD. DURING THE APCH TO LAND, THE ACFT HIT A FENCE & WAS DAMAGED. A LACK OF FUEL WAS NOTED IN THE FUEL LINE LEADING TO THE CARBURETOR. THE ACFT HAD BEEN REFUELED WITH 37 GAL OF UNLEADED AUTOMOTIVE FUEL. THE AIR TEMP WAS REPORTED AS 85 DEG. NO PRE-ACCIDENT PROBLEM WAS FOUND THAT WOULD HAVE CAUSED A LOSS OF POWER, VAPOR LOCK OR OTHER ENG/FUEL SYS PROBLEM. THE WOBBLE PUMP WAS NOT USED WHILE ATTEMPTING TO RESTORE PWR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN85LA151
- Event ID
- 20001214X36746
- Case number
- DEN85LA151
- 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: 794cc57fc687505d87549b695b4d09d9aa3bba1f1a27dd466f50e2a88f1969ba; retrieved 2026-09-23T17:24:51.310Z.