SEA03LA164 · Beech A35
Beech A35 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Norman Grier Field (S36) to Orcas Island Airport (ORS)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03LA164
- 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 A35
- 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
- N8598A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Norman Grier Field (S36), Kent, WATo Orcas Island Airport (ORS), Eastsound, WA
- 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
- 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
- Engine assembly, cylinder › Overtemperature
- Fuel system, injector › Blocked(partial)
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that while in cruise flight, he noted a minor shaking. The pilot performed a magneto check, enrichened the mixture, and switched fuel tanks. The shaking continued as the pilot noted a rise in oil temperature. The engine subsequently lost power and the pilot initiated a forced landing to a beach. The aircraft was substantially damaged during the gear up landing. During a post accident inspection of the engine it was found that the number three cylinder would not hold compression. The cylinder was removed and it was found that the piston head displayed severe pitting, heat distress and metal transfer from the piston to the cylinder wall. Portions of the piston were broken off as well as portions of the piston rings. The number five cylinder was also removed which displayed similar damage to the piston head, however not as severe. A fuel flow test of the fuel injectors found that the number three injector indicated a decreased fuel flow as compared to the other five.
Probable cause
A partially blocked fuel injector which led to an over temperature condition in the cylinders resulting in a loss of engine power during cruise flight. Sandy terrain conditions for the landing was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03LA164
- Event ID
- 20030813X01322
- Case number
- SEA03LA164
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2003-07-18.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f0985706378ae09fafc0965cb74d82dc81c71c8c615c39812db3425438cf7619; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:57:37.692Z.