NYC04LA027 · Beech M35
Beech M35 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport (SHD) to Bellefonte Airport (N96)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC04LA027
- 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 M35
- 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
- N9730R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport (SHD), Shenandoah, VATo Bellefonte Airport (N96), Bellefonte, PA
- 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
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 departed with 70 gallons of fuel and flew approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes to his destination airport. While on an extended crosswind leg for the runway, the engine lost all power. The pilot discontinued the approach, and immediately turned toward a clearing. While gliding toward the clearing, the pilot attempted to restart the engine by verifying the mixture was rich, repositioning the fuel selector, verifying the electric fuel pump was on, and cycling the ignition key. The fuel selector was positioned to the right main fuel tank when the engine lost all power. The pilot attempted a restart with the fuel selector positioned to the right main fuel tank, and the left main fuel tank. However, the engine did not regain power. The airplane struck trees and came to rest prior to the clearing. Examination of the wreckage revealed fuel present in both main fuel tanks. A subsequent test-run of the engine was performed at a recovery facility. The engine started with no difficulty, and ran continuously at 1500 rpm.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power during approach for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC04LA027
- Event ID
- 20031113X01894
- Case number
- NYC04LA027
- 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: bda58d13aeeb345730e95b293de3bc55b71fbc55f73fc68c4cd99cca70c7ac69; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:13:08.963Z.