SEA03LA090 · Beech 95 C-55
Beech 95 C-55 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during takeoff
From Dietz Airpark (OR40) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03LA090
- 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 95 C-55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 95
- 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
- N660K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dietz Airpark (OR40), Canby, ORTo 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
- 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)
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airline transport pilot reported that the airplane experienced a dual engine failure just after takeoff from the 2,800-foot turf runway. Following the engine failure, the pilot attempted to land on the remaining runway, however, the airplane touched down in tall grass adjacent to the runway and slid to a stop. In a subsequent written statement, the pilot reported that he inadvertently initiated the takeoff with the fuel selectors in the auxiliary position. He reported that normally the airplane is operated (during the takeoff phase of flight) with the fuel selectors in the main tank position, but he became distracted during the preflight and failed to reconfigure the fuel system prior to takeoff. He further reported that the main fuel tanks contained sufficient fuel for the flight, however, the auxiliary tanks were almost empty. An FAA inspector examined the aircraft and reported that there were trace amounts of fuel in the aircraft's auxiliary fuel tanks.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight planning resulting in fuel starvation and subsequent loss of power after takeoff. High vegetation was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03LA090
- Event ID
- 20030609X00822
- Case number
- SEA03LA090
- 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: fa01a938973300eaa467e590eb106d3a6b3fd4954e46009bfd5011bffc5fe9b4; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:14:00.175Z.