LAX04FA019 · Beech 35-C33
Beech 35-C33 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Henderson Executive Airport (HND) to Mesquite Airport (67L)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04FA019
- 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
- 2 · 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 35-C33
- 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
- N9438S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Henderson Executive Airport (HND), Las Vegas, NVTo Mesquite Airport (67L), Mesquite, NV
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, not selected
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, 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 airplane collided with terrain about 100 yards from the airport boundary fence at the approach end of runway 19. One of the airplane's owners completed a 1.4-hour flight with the certified flight instructor (CFI) immediately before the accident flight. He started with 30 gallons in each main tank and 6 gallons in each tip tank. He said that they burned fuel out of the left main tank during the flight at a rate of about 13 gallons per hour. He left the fuel selector valve on the left main tank. After the owner's flight with the CFI, he observed the pilot under instruction and the CFI do a walk around inspection of the airplane. He did not see them refuel. After a ground briefing, they did a 15- to 20-minute run up before taking off. Based on the airplane's performance charts, the estimated time from the departure point to the accident site was 30 minutes. Based on the owner's historical fuel consumption, the estimated minimum fuel consumed on the accident flight would have been 7 gallons in addition to the estimated 19 gallons used by the owner on the previous flight. The left wing did not burn; however, the left main tank had been compromised in the impact sequence. Fire consumed the right wing and its associated fuel tanks. The propeller exhibited minimal damage, consistent with either no power or idle power at ground impact. The airplane had a single throw over control yoke, and it was to the left side. The landing gear was down, and the flaps were in the full down position. The fuel selector valve was on the left main tank. No preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures were identified during the wreckage examination.
Probable cause
fuel starvation due to the pilot's inadequate in-flight planning and fuel system management, and failure to select a fuel tank containing fuel. Also causal was the certified flight instructor's inadequate supervision.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04FA019
- Event ID
- 20031023X01802
- Case number
- LAX04FA019
- 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: 14301c5a06df13ffc6538623a0d9c9eaba4d20ba3c73e2ff214759a80b274080; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:52:07.006Z.