ATL04FA118 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Wilmington International Airport (ILM) to Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL04FA118
- 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
- 1 · 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 A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N4550S
- Operator
- Robert G. Snyder · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wilmington International Airport (ILM), Wilmington, NCTo Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), Raleigh-Durham, NC
- 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
- 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
- Wire, static
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight departed Daytona Beach International Airport enroute to Wilmington International Airport, where the passengers were to deplane. The pilot performed a visual inspection of the airplane, checked the fuel tanks and verifyed that they were full before taking off from Daytona Beach. Two passengers stated that the flight from Daytona Beach to Wilmington was approximately two and a half hours long. Upon arriving in Wilmington, the pilot did not shut down the engine, but deplaned the passengers and continued the flight to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The pilot established radio contact with the FAA Raleigh Approach Control and was provided flight following service for the flight. When the flight arrived within range of the airport, the pilot was given radar vectors to the final approach course for runway 23L. A review of radar data showed that when the airplane was 1.37 miles from the runway, the airplane was about 800 feet mean sea level. At the same time the pilot reported to the controller that he had a problem. Seconds later, the pilot reported that he had lost his engine. This was the last radio transmission from the pilot. Examination of the accident site revealed that two broken power lines located along the wreckage path. The main wreckage was located inverted in a creek 4,800 feet on an extended centerline on the approach side for runway 23L. Postcrash examination and testing of the aircraft structure, flight controls, systems, engine, and propeller showed no evidence of precrash anomalies. The fuel lines were found severed at the wing roots.
Probable cause
The failure of the engine for undetermined reasons resulting in the aircraft colliding with powerlines and the ground during the subsequent forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL04FA118
- Event ID
- 20040524X00640
- Case number
- ATL04FA118
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2004-05-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5de95795cadde3b1ab5de199b1d4fb0e49065905f070793c28d819fbd3095d16; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:28:50.215Z.