LAX02LA117 · Beech A35
Beech A35 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Q94 · Rio Linda, CA to Buchanan Field (CCR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX02LA117
- 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 A35
- 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
- N8428A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Q94 · Rio Linda, CATo Buchanan Field (CCR), Concord, CA
- 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 (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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane landed "flat and hard" off the end of the runway then slid into a creek bed after a loss of engine power in the takeoff initial climb. Ground witnesses said the airplane achieved about 100 feet of altitude after liftoff then the engine coughed and lost power. The pilot said that he ran the engine up off the tip tanks, and after he was satisfied that the engine was running smoothly, switched to the left main tank for takeoff. After the engine coughed and quit, he switched on the electric auxiliary fuel pump and ensured that he was operating off the left main tank, but did not have time to attempt a restart. A California Highway Patrol pilot officer was the first to arrive on the accident scene and turned the tip tank fuel selector valve from the LEFT to the OFF position. Subsequent examination of the selector panel by an FAA inspector found the main fuel valve in the right main tank position; however, this was after the fire department said it's personnel had "moved several switches and levers" in order to secure the cockpit. Fuel tank documentation found that the left and right mains contained about 7.5 gallons and 5 gallons, respectively; the left tip tank was empty, and the right tip tank destroyed. There was no sign of fuel leakage on the ground below the left tip tank. The fuel supply line to the carburetor was loosened and about 1 tablespoon of fuel was recovered from the line. The Owner's Manual states several times that "in no case should a takeoff be made if the fuel indicators are in the yellow band or, with less than 10 gallons of fuel in each of the main tanks." According to Raytheon Aircraft, this warning is due to the location of the fuel pickups in the tanks on this model aircraft, which would allow unporting and fuel supply interruption with steep attitudes, turning type ground maneuvers during takeoffs, or uncoordinated flight. Following recovery of the airplane to a salvage yard, the engine was mounted on a test stand, and it started on the first attempt and accelerated smoothly with normal throttle response and magneto operation.
Probable cause
the loss of engine power as a result of fuel starvation due to the pilot's inadequate fuel system management and failure to follow procedures and directives in the Pilot Operating Handbook listed by the manufacturer.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX02LA117
- Event ID
- 20020402X00445
- Case number
- LAX02LA117
- 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, coordinates. 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: 75c860c22fa1e84351e02fc4962c466781482e41b7519a6abad4d8b3a0caa5df; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:41:01.004Z.