ATL05CA087 · Beech BE-36
F & W Aviation Beech BE-36 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL) to Lumpkin County Wimpys Airport (9A0)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL05CA087
- 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 BE-36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft BE-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
- N17836
- Operator
- F & W Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL), Gainesville, GATo Lumpkin County Wimpys Airport (9A0), Dahlonega, GA
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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 › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
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 prepared his airplane for a short cross-country flight. After the preflight he departed the Gainesville Airport and climbed to 3000 feet. Upon arrival at his destination airport he turned downwind and then base to set up for his final approach for landing. As the pilot adjusted the power setting the manifold pressure began to drop. The pilot switched the fuel selector from the right fuel tank to the left fuel tank, and the manifold pressure continued to drop and the engine lost power. The pilot made an off field forced landing on a road. During the landing roll out the right wing struck a tree. Post accident examination of the airplane revealed the outboard section of the right wing was broken off of the airframe. The nose of the airplane was buckled downward and aft, and the nose gear was separated from the airframe. The left wing assembly was buckled. Examination of the right fuel tank revealed that it had less than a quart of fuel. The left fuel tank had approximately 12 gallons of fuel. According to the pilot, "a possible miscalculation of remaining fuel in the right tank, and more attention to fuel management may have prevented the emergency landing". Review of the pilot operating handbook: Before Landing checklist item #2 states: Fuel Selector Valve-SELECT FULLER TANK (feel for detent).
Probable cause
The pilot's mismanagment of the fuel supply which resulted in fuel starvation and subsequent loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL05CA087
- Event ID
- 20050623X00854
- Case number
- ATL05CA087
- 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: 9bd2e8d9e8782fe9d525f816d10bc19c03e2c488e83adc3e44b7ce2535f71988; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:52:56.902Z.