LAX01LA247 · Beech J35
Beech J35 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT) to Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX01LA247
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 J35
- 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
- N3014C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT), El Monte, CATo Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NV
- 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 · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- 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 › Flight manuals, not complied with
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On short final to runway 19 right at McCarran, the engine lost power, resulting in a forced landing on a dirt road approximately 1/4 mile from the runway. The airplane was substantially damaged when it landed hard in a 5- to 10-degree bank and skidded to a stop. The pilot had departed the El Monte airport on the left main tank. After burning 10.1 gallons from the left tank, he switched to the auxiliary tank over Baker, California, which is approximately halfway between El Monte and Las Vegas. He continued on the auxiliary tank for the remainder of the flight. The right tank was not used. As he approached the airport for landing, he verified that the fuel selector was in the auxiliary position, and believed that he should have had about 13 gallons remaining. The airplane was equipped with a Shadin fuel management system, indicating fuel flow, gallons used, and gallons remaining. The fuel management system data indicated that the airplane had used 19.6 gallons total, at a rate of 12.7 gallons per hour on average. The two main tanks hold 20 gallons of fuel each totaling 40 gallons, of which 34 are useable. The interconnected auxiliary tanks hold an additional 20 gallons. The fuel flow was set to 12.2 to 12.6 gallons per hour during the cruise portion of the flight. The fuel injection system returns about 10 gallons per hour of excess fuel. Fuel return lines are routed through the selector valve to each main cell; except for the auxiliary cells, fuel is returned to the cell from which it is drawn. The auxiliary cells return fuel to the left main cell only. The pilot had burned 10.1 gallons from the left main tank prior to switching to the auxiliary tank, and then an additional 9.4 gallons was used from the auxilliary tank. However, 19.4 gallons would have actually been withdrawn from the auxiliary tank. The additional fuel was routed to the left main tank, which was then filled back up to capacity. This left only 4/10 gallon in the auxiliary tanks, which is to be used in level flight only, and never for takeoff or landing.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to comply with the airplane flight manual, resulting in fuel starvation and subsequent forced landing on rough terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX01LA247
- Event ID
- 20010725X01514
- Case number
- LAX01LA247
- 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: 0770492ed603101a02aa45af66fd823e46e8676ed1ab2933d115c45781d19766; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:45:23.643Z.