SEA83FA093 · Beech 77
Beech 77 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA83FA093
- 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
- 2 · 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 77
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 77
- 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
- N67140
- Operator
- Fancher Flyways
- 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 (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
- 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 maintenance personnel › Maintenance, adjustment, improper
- Engine assembly, other › Undertorqued
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT WAS TAKING OFF FOR A 1 HOUR ENGINE RUN-IN FOLLOWING A TOP OVERHAUL. AFTER LIFTOFF THE ENGINE BEGAN A GRADUAL POWER LOSS AND ROUGH RUNNING. THE PILOT WAS TRYING TURNING BACK TO THE RUNWAY TO LAND WHEN TOTAL POWER LOSS OCCURRED. THE ACFT HAD TURNED 45 DEGREES WHEN THE NOSE FELL THROUGH, THE WINGS ROTATED 180 DEGREES TO THE LEFT AND THE ACFT IMPACTED NOSE FIRST ON THE RUNWAY. THE MECHANIC WHO PERFORMED THE REMOVAL AND REINSTALLATION OF THE CYLINDERS FOR THE TOP OVERHAUL WAS OCCUPYING THE LEFT SEAT. THE MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR WAS THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND IN THE RIGHT SEAT. THE LOCKING NUT ON THE #1 CYLINDER EXHAUST VALVE ADJUSTING SCREW WAS FOUND LOOSE AND THE ADJUSTING SCREW HAD BACKED OUT OF THE ROCKER ARM BY PUSHROD ACTION DURING TAKEOFF, NEGATING ROCKER ARM ACTION AND EXHAUST VALVE OPENING. THE LOCKING NUTS FOR ALL OF THE OTHER VALVE ADJUSTING SCREWS WERE FOUND PROPERLY TORQUED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA83FA093
- Event ID
- 20001214X42821
- Case number
- SEA83FA093
- 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: e8ed3a672034b099dab05b7d3feed7b736b640f31320f63c98b9c4b681392a38; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:53:04.502Z.