ATL83LA077 · Beech 58P
Beech 58P · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Philadelphia, PA to Fort Pierce, FL
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL83LA077
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech 58P
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 58
- 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
- N2038P
- Operator
- Helfrick, Edward W. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Philadelphia, PATo Fort Pierce, FL
- 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 · cruise
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Electrical system › Failure, total
- Electrical system, alternator › Inoperative
- Electrical system, alternator › Water
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Gear down and locked, not attained
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Charleston, SC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
ABOUT 40 MI FROM DESTINATION IN HEAVY RAIN, BOTH ALTERNATORS FAILED. ELECTRICAL LOAD WAS REDUCED & A RADAR MONITORED ILS APCH WAS MADE. AFTER DESCENT THROUGH THE CLOUDS INTO VMC AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO LOWER THE LANDING GEAR ELECTRICALLY.AT THAT TIME ALL ELECT POWER WAS LOST. THE MANUAL EMERG GEAR EXTENSION WAS USED UNTIL RESISTANCE WAS FELT. DURING THE LANDING THE GEAR RETRACTED. THE LANDING GEAR MOTOR CIRCUIT BREAKER WAS NOT PULLED PRIOR TO THE GEAR BEING CRANKED DOWN IAW THE PLT'S OPERATING HANDBOOK. CESSNA ACFT CORP HAD PUBLISHED 2 SERVICE INFO LETTERS WHICH APPLIED TO ACFT EQUIPPED WITH THE SAME ENG/ALTERNATOR INSTALLATION AS THE ACCIDENT ACFT. THESE LETTERS RESULTED FROM MOISTURE INDUCED INTERRUPTION OF ALTERNATOR OUTPUT. ADDITIONALLY, THE ENG/ALTERNATOR/COWLING INSTALLATION OF THE BE-58P IS SIMILAR TO THECESSNA ACFT AFFECTED BY THE LETTER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL83LA077
- Event ID
- 20020917X04383
- Case number
- ATL83LA077
- 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: 98940f7d8300f9aa21df5c8bf37ecaa06da4b7bbd2bda29586d7a79562338221; retrieved 2026-09-23T23:37:59.967Z.