ATL85FA054 · Beech D18S
Beech D18S · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Richmond International Airport (RIC) to Norfolk International Airport (ORF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL85FA054
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech D18S
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 18
- 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
- N8517Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Richmond International Airport (RIC), Richmond, VATo Norfolk International Airport (ORF), Norfolk, VA
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Approach · IFR final approach
- 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 (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 exhaustion; 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
- Company/operator management › Improper training
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not understood
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Norfolk, VA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT CRASHED DURING AN ILS APPROACH FOLLOWING AN ENGINE POWER LOSS WHILE ON AN AIR TAXI FREIGHT FLIGHT. THE PLT RELATED THAT AT ABOUT 550 FT ON THE APPROACH TO RWY 23 THE LEFT ENG FUEL PRESS WARNING LITE ILLUMINATED & THE LT ENG LOSS POWER. THE PLT OPENED THE CROSSFEED VALVE & SHORTLY THE RT FUEL PRESS WARNING LITE ILLUMINATED FOLLOWED BY LOSS OF POWER ON THE RT ENG. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THERE IS ONE FUEL GAUGE FOR THE TANK SYSTEM & A SELECTOR SWITCH MUST BE ACTIVATED TO DETERMINE THE FUEL QUANTITY IN ANY DESIRED TANK. THE PLT'S ACTION IN SELECTING CROSSFEED & NOT CLOSING THE FUEL SHUT OFF VALVE ALLOWED FUEL TO BE DIVERTED FROM THE OPERATIVE RT ENG RESULTING IN A LOSS OF POWER DUE TO FUEL STARVATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL85FA054
- Event ID
- 20001214X41696
- Case number
- ATL85FA054
- 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: d6eeb5dd20e6d33ad21fe686bcf8b3f91beaee5ea94bdae829b9fc00e3495a42; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:33:45.872Z.