ATL03LA012 · Beech F33A
Beech F33A · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From 55J · Fernandina Bch, FL to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL03LA012
- 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
- 1 · 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 F33A
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 33
- 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
- N3122K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 55J · Fernandina Bch, FLTo not recorded
- 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 · climb to 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fuel system › Contamination, water
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the airframe and powerplant mechanic passenger, the airplane was on a maintenance test flight. After takeoff the airplane climbed to 2,500 feet, and experienced a loss of engine power. Attempts by the pilot to restore engine power were unsuccessful. While attempting to return to the airport the airplane collided into a wooded area short of runway 22. The pilot and mechanic exited the airplane. The airplane was consumed by post-crash fire. During the on scene engine examination approximately eight ounces of water was drained from the fuel selector. Examination of the fuel strainer found rust on the strainer spring, and heat damage on the internal rubber components. Approximately three ounces of water was drained from the sump during the on scene examination. The engine was removed and sent to Teledyne Continental Motors for further examination.The internal examination of the fuel pump found it to be damaged in the post-crash fire. There were heavy deposits of lacquer found in the internal vanes of the fuel pump that operate the pumping action. The fuel manifold was flow tested and it was found to be within operating parameters. The engine driven fuel pump could not be tested because it would not rotate.
Probable cause
Water contamination in the fuel system which resulted in the loss of engine power and the subsequent collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL03LA012
- Event ID
- 20021104X05424
- Case number
- ATL03LA012
- 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: b842929eb7d411e31e8a5cfbb8280ad4e057e647d1ea180d651b555931a66275; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:43:14.608Z.