IAD05LA005 · Beech C24R
Beech C24R · Accident: fire on approach
From Cape Cod Gateway Airport (HYA) to Martha's Vineyard Airport (MVY)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD05LA005
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech C24R
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 24
- 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
- N6598C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cape Cod Gateway Airport (HYA), Hyannis, MATo Martha's Vineyard Airport (MVY), Vineyard Haven, MA
- 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
- Fire
- 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
- Fuel system, line fitting › Disconnected
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After maintenance to repair a magneto problem, the pilot verified that the magneto check was satisfactory during the engine run-up. After takeoff, and while being vectored for a localizer approach, the pilot smelled smoke in the cockpit. As the pilot attempted to discern the source of the smoke, the engine stopped producing power, the nose of the airplane pitched down, and black smoke poured from the defroster vents. The pilot turned in the general direction of the departure airport, descended below the cloud layer, and performed a forced landing to a golf course. Examination of the airplane revealed extensive fire damage in the engine compartment. Further examination revealed that the fuel pressure line to the fuel pressure gauge was disconnected from its baffle fitting. The line was "rerouted," and the line was held in place between an oil supply line and structural tubing. Examination of the airplane's logbooks revealed that no entries were made that reflected the repair work to the magnetos. On the pilot's receipt, however, the mechanic wrote, "Reinstalled P-leads on mags." According to an FAA inspector's statement, "To gain access to the left magneto, the fuel line must be moved out of the way."
Probable cause
The mechanic's failure to secure the fuel pressure line to the fuel pressure gauge fitting, which resulted in an engine compartment fire and a subsequent loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD05LA005
- Event ID
- 20041118X01834
- Case number
- IAD05LA005
- 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: de5985938498403753a428e635aaeef688b066524b9bebc9975e74a482899ed1; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:37:03.604Z.