FTW01LA002 · Cessna 401A
Cessna 401A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From El Paso International Airport (ELP) to Andrews County Airport (E11)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW01LA002
- 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
Cessna 401A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 401
- 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
- N800SS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From El Paso International Airport (ELP), El Paso, TXTo Andrews County Airport (E11), TX
- 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
- 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
- Total 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Proper descent rate, exceeded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses reported observing the airplane on a 'tight' right base, 'low approach' to runway 33. Approximately one-quarter mile east of the runway, the airplane was observed in a 'sharp 90-degree turn (right turn) north and [a] rapid descent to the runway.' The airplane's right wing tip impacted the runway, and the airplane exited the runway and came to rest upright between the runway and a taxiway. A witness recalled the pilot stating that he 'lost his engines' and that he 'hit really hard.' One witness stated he did not recall hearing any engine noise, and another witness reported hearing the engines 'quit.' The right wing tip fuel tank was destroyed. The left wing tip fuel tank was compromised. Both auxiliary fuel tanks were empty. Both fuel selector valves were in the auxiliary tank position. Numerous attempts to contact the pilot were unsuccessful.
Probable cause
The hard landing due to the pilot's excessive rate of descent. A factor was the loss of engine power due to fuel starvation as a result of the pilot's improper positioning of the fuel selectors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW01LA002
- Event ID
- 20010116X00308
- Case number
- FTW01LA002
- 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: 6397ac4e926f325f6b25d9bf3a8849569072d975176891479dc3dea9db61b245; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:23:02.406Z.