NYC83FA141 · Beech K35
Beech K35 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Danbury Municipal Airport (DXR) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC83FA141
- 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
- 4 · 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 K35
- 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
- N9554R
- Operator
- Robert W. Brooks · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Danbury Municipal Airport (DXR), Danbury, CTTo 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
- 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 starvation; 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Ridgefield, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, SEVERAL WITNESSES HEARD UNUSUAL SOUNDS FROM THE ACFT. ONE STATED THAT HE HEARD A SPUTTERING NOISE & THE ENG STOPPED, THEN IT RESTARTED, BUT WAS NOT SMOOTH. THE OTHER 2 WITNESSES HEARD A BACKFIRING OR SPUTTERING NOISE. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT ENTERED A STEEP DESCENT & CRASHED. BEFORE THE PLANE CRASHED, THE PLT HAD TRANSMITTED A MAYDAY CALL & SAID THE ACFT WAS GOING DOWN. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A MECHANICAL PROBLEM. EXCEPT THE LEFT FUEL CAP O-RING WAS BADLY CRACKED FROM AGE & THE TOP OF THE LEFT WING HAD SIGNS OF FUEL STREAMING (SYPHONING). PRIOR TO THIS FLT, THE ACFT HAD BEEN FLOWN FROM YOUNGSTOWN, OH TO WILKES-BARRE, PA, THEN ON TO DANBURY, CT. THE PLT HAD REPORTED THAT ON THAT TRIP, HE HAD SEEN FUEL STREAMING FROM THE LEFT WING, ALL THE WAY BACK, AND THAT HE WOULD SEE A MECHANIC ABOUT FIXING THE CAPS. THERE WAS NO RECORD THAT THE ACFT HAD BEEN REFUELED AT WILKES-BARRE OR DANBURY, PRIOR TO THIS FLT. ALSO, A MECHANIC HAD PREVIOUSLY ADVISED THE OWNER TO REPLACE THE O-RINGS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC83FA141
- Event ID
- 20001214X43479
- Case number
- NYC83FA141
- 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: 491f9ca808db5784d6cf8681c17d74e8cafe42f2b4b70c86616cbf8054ea3c69; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:40:42.436Z.