NYC84FA228 · Beech B55
Beech B55 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From 5B5 to 5B5 · Bennington, VT
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC84FA228
- 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 B55
- 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
- N8101R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From 5B5To 5B5 · Bennington, VT
- 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
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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 › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of North Haverhill, NH, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A FRIEND WHO OBSERVED THE PLT PREFLIGHTING THE ACFT SAW HIM DRAIN FUEL FROM THE SUMPS TO CHECK FOR WATER. HOWEVER, HE DID NOT SEE THE PLT CHECK THE FUEL LEVEL IN THE TANKS. THE PLT TAXIED TO THE RWY, PERFORMED AN ENG RUN-UP & TOOK OFF. SHORTLY AFTER LIFT-OFF, WITNESSES NOTED A LOSS OF ENG POWER. THE ACFT THEN DESCENDED IN A LEFT TURN & COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND LESS THAN 1 MI FROM THE ARPT. AN EXAM OF THE ACFT DISCLOSED A TOTAL OF ABOUT 1 GAL OF FUEL ABOARD. APRX 1 GAL WAS FOUND IN THE LEFT MAIN & AUX TANKS. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE RIGHT MAIN & AUX TANKS. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF FUEL LEAKAGE FROM THE LEFT WING, BUT AN UNDETERMINED AMOUNT OF FUEL HAD LEAKED FROM THE RIGHT TANKS. THE LEFT FUEL SELECTOR WAS FOUND POSITIONED TO THE LEFT MAIN TANK; THE RIGHT SELECTOR WAS POSITIONED TO THE RIGHT AUX TANK. THE ACFT WAS PLACARDED FOR TAKEOFF BY USING THE MAIN TANKS ONLY. ME TOX CHECK SHOWED BLOOD/ALCOHOL LVL: 0.148%, VITREOUS/ALCOHOL LVL:0.003%; HOWEVER, FAA TESTS WERE NEGATIVE FOR ALCOHOL IN BLOOD & URINE; NH STATE TEST SHOWED LESS THAN 0.01% IN BLOOD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC84FA228
- Event ID
- 20001214X40455
- Case number
- NYC84FA228
- 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: 0b8e56ea7cc4c9c11126d4ac7a2f03e274dbd458c0af2e8eb8936287bfbf38a5; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:27:56.224Z.