FTW03LA035 · Beech J35
Beech J35 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during takeoff
From Low Pass Airport (4OK4) to F29 · Yukon, OK
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW03LA035
- 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
- N8355D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Low Pass Airport (4OK4), Newcastle, OKTo F29 · Yukon, OK
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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)
- 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, tank › Starvation
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The aircraft impacted terrain during a forced landing following a loss of engine power during takeoff initial climb. The 37,000-hour pilot stated that he "looked over the airplane, sumped the fuel tanks and ran-up the engine." He stated that he selected the left main tank, as required by the operating handbook. The pilot further stated that everything was "normal" and he proceeded to takeoff. After takeoff, "the engine backfired a couple of times" and he banked the airplane around to the east to return to the airport. The pilot further reported that as the airplane continued around to the north, "the engine quit." An examination of the fuel system revealed that the left main fuel tank and both auxiliary fuel tanks contained fuel; however, the right main fuel tank was empty. The right main fuel tank had not been compromised. Further examination of the fuel system revealed that the fuel selector was selecting the right main tank, and the right sump area was taped.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to fuel starvation. Contributing factors were the pilot's improper positioning of the fuel selector and the lack of suitable terrain for landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW03LA035
- Event ID
- 20021115X05472
- Case number
- FTW03LA035
- 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: 5bd4db82faf4f7f780ed461b4fbd874b2cb45afc939c91a194f35ac9f2a825be; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:33:06.476Z.