CHI04FA290 · Beech B95A
Beech B95A · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Burlington Municipal Airport (BUU) to Cedar Island Airport (WI10)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04FA290
- 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
- 3 · 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 B95A
- 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
- N1703Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Burlington Municipal Airport (BUU), Burlington, WITo Cedar Island Airport (WI10), WILMOT, WI
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fuel injection control/system › Failure, total
- Fuel injection control/system › Loose part/bolt/nut/clamp/etc
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, improper
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vmc), not obtained/maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was destroyed when it impacted terrain following a loss of control after takeoff. A witness observed the airplane takeoff and then make a right turn that increased in bank angle until the airplane impacted the ground. Examination of the airplane's control system revealed no pre-impact abnormalities. Examination of the left engine revealed no pre-impact abnormalities. An examination and subsequent test run of the right engine revealed that the engine would not operate continuously with the installed fuel servo. A flow test of the fuel servo showed that the fuel flow was not within the manufacturer's specifications. Disassembly of the fuel servo showed that the fuel regulator nuts were loose and not the same as those originally supplied by the manufacturer. The measured drag torque of the regulator nuts was below the manufacturer's minimum specifications. An overhaul tag indicated that the fuel servo had been previously overhauled. A search of the aircraft records for the previous 5 years showed no record of the fuel servo being overhauled.
Probable cause
The improper maintenance of the fuel servo resulting in a loose adjustment nut and subsequent failure of the fuel injection servo which led to a complete loss of power on the right engine. Other causes were the pilot's failure to obtain or maintain minimum controllable airspeed which resulted in an uncommanded roll and subsequent impact with the ground.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04FA290
- Event ID
- 20041006X01587
- Case number
- CHI04FA290
- 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. 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: 235ef1d08208b23ce8959ffb897aa79f0c7c93e6d264b0454decda0f4650fc90; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:19:29.003Z.