ATL05LA047 · Beech C-23
Beech C-23 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From Roseboro, NC (private airstrip) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL05LA047
- 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 C-23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft C-23
- 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
- N9JY
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Roseboro, NC (private airstrip)To not recorded
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Engine accessories, oil cooler actuating assembly › Fractured
- Engine accessories, oil cooler actuating assembly › Overload
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, he made a preflight inspection and run-up of the airplane prior to takeoff. He stated that after takeoff, as he climbed through 1,000 feet, he heard a knocking sound coming from the engine and immediately observed low oil pressure on the oil pressure gauge in the cockpit. He stated that within 60 seconds, "the engine seized" and the airplane began to lose altitude. The pilot immediately turned toward an open field, but collided with trees 40 yards short of the field. The airplane came to rest in a wooded area in a nose low, right wing low attitude. The post-accident examination of the airplane revealed the right wing was partially separated at the root and the left wing was displaced aft. The horizontal stabilizer was separated from the empennage assembly. There was oil residue on the external oil hoses, the starter, and underside of the fuselage. There was also oil observed at the airstrip apron where the preflight run-up was conducted. The oil cooler contained two cracks in the first segment of the cooler adjacent to the joint between the first and second segments and in line with one of the oil ports. NTSB Material Laboratory examination showed that the exterior portion of the crack was damaged, apparently by contact with the mating face of the crack, and that fracture features on undamaged portions consisted of ductile dimples, indicative of overstress fracture.
Probable cause
The overload fracture of the engine oil cooler for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL05LA047
- Event ID
- 20050203X00129
- Case number
- ATL05LA047
- 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: 31a3d9793fa8df757de96653e21916d639fa6e034c1f288031f5dce9324597ea; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:21:19.936Z.