CHI03LA101 · Beech K35
Beech K35 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Montgomery County Airpark (GAI) to Eagle Creek Airpark (EYE)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI03LA101
- 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 K35
- 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
- N614Q
- Operator
- Douglas C. Johnson · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery County Airpark (GAI), Gaithersburg, MDTo Eagle Creek Airpark (EYE), Indianapolis, IN
- 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
- 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 exhaustion
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, misjudged
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 was substantially damaged on impact with terrain during a forced landing after total loss of engine power. The pilot was ferrying the airplane to California for the new owner when the accident occurred. The pilot reported that he banked the airplane to avoid hitting power lines. The airplane came to rest inverted. The fuel lines to the fuel distribution manifold were disconnected and no fuel was present. Further inspection of the fuel tanks revealed the left outboard fuel tank contained approximately one quart of 100 low lead fuel. No fuel was present in the other tanks. The pilot reported he took off with 47 gallons of fuel on board. The airplane had not been flow for approximately 10 years. The fuel tanks were drained and the airplane was fueled with 47.5 gallons of fuel during the month prior to the accident. The aircraft owner then started the airplane and ran the engine for approximately 40 minutes. No additional fuel was added prior to the accident flight. The accident pilot stated the fuel gauges were erratic.
Probable cause
The pilot misjudged the fuel supply during the aircraft preflight which resulted in fuel exhaustion. A factor associated with the accident was the wires.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI03LA101
- Event ID
- 20030415X00509
- Case number
- CHI03LA101
- 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: 0bbfe558ae47b3b07d12c361b898a59616e1195c4120d119eb2285197b622e2f; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:29:13.949Z.