CHI02LA258 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Lawrence Municipal Airport (LWC) to Colonel James Jabara Airport (AAO)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02LA258
- 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 A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N336CB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lawrence Municipal Airport (LWC), Lawrence, KSTo Colonel James Jabara Airport (AAO), Wichita, KS
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- 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 › Fuel consumption calculations, not performed
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, improper
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane sustained substantial damage during a forced landing after a loss of engine power. The pilot reported that during cruise flight at 8,000 feet msl, he "noted sluggish and erratic fuel gauge needle trends on the left gauge." The pilot reported that the engine began to run rough during descent from 8,000 feet. The pilot reported he immediately switched to the right fuel tank and activated the low boost pump. He reported the engine "spooled down." He established a 110 knot glide attitude. He then set the electric fuel pump to high boost and the mixture control to full rich. The engine restarted briefly, then stopped. The pilot executed a forced landing to a field. He reported that he "did not have sufficient visual references with which to accurately flare so we impacted the ground at approximately 85 kts indicated." The inspection of the airplane revealed that the right fuel tank contained about 25 gallons of fuel. The left fuel tank was de-fueled and 3 gallons and 8 ounces of fuel was removed from the tank. The aircraft placard states that the unusable fuel is 3 gallons. The Pilot Operating Handbook states the following information concerning the operation to the Auxiliary Fuel Pump Switch: "The HI position is used for priming the engine during cold starts and also to provide an alternate source of fuel pressure in the event the engine-driven fuel pump fails. HI boost must not be used during flight unless the engine-driven fuel pump has failed. The increased pressure of the HI boost will over-drive the fuel control unit producing abnormally high fuel flows which, in turn, will cause engine roughness. In some cases, engine combustion may cease."
Probable cause
Fuel starvation due to the pilot's improper fuel management, the pilot's improper remedial actions during engine restart, and the unsuitable terrain encountered during the forced landing. Additional factors included the inadequate flare and the dark night.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02LA258
- Event ID
- 20020904X01513
- Case number
- CHI02LA258
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2002-08-18.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a3957e9e6e85e2a421ef57f4689f5d45d904a8f93b8816534b567d12be3befe5; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:28:21.869Z.