CHI06FA090 · Beech J35
Beech J35 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Anderson Regional Airport (AND) to West Michigan Regional Airport (BIV)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI06FA090
- 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
- 2 · 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 J35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N8271D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Anderson Regional Airport (AND), Anderson, SCTo West Michigan Regional Airport (BIV), Holland, MI
- 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)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, not selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane impacted an embankment following a reported loss of engine power while on approach. Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed. A witness stated, "The pilot of N8271D announced that he was 10 miles or so south of the airport and was inbound for runway 26. ... He replied that he would join 8 for a right downwind and would follow us in. ... The pilot of 71D continued to make radio calls announcing his progress in the traffic pattern. We were waiting at the end of the taxiway for 71D to land. We saw the landing lights as 71D turned to final. As we watched 7ID's progress on final, suddenly the lights simply disappeared. ... It did appear to me that 71D was at an unusually steep descent angle." The witness stated that the pilot said over the headset that the airplane lost engine power. She stated that the airplane was in a turn while on approach during the reported engine power loss. An on scene investigation revealed that the left and right auxiliary fuel tanks contained a fluid that exhibited a smell consistent with aviation gasoline (avgas). The left and right main fuel tanks did not contain any fluids. Flight control continuity and engine control continuity was established. The fuel tank selector was found in the detent selecting the left main tank. Air pressure was applied to the fuel supply line and air was heard escaping in the left main fuel tank. An inspection of the left main fuel tank revealed no anomalies. Battery power was applied to the electric fuel pump with the fuel selector selecting the left main tank and no fluids were observed exiting the fuel supply line to the engine driven fuel pump. The fuel selector was rotated to the detent for the auxiliary tank, battery power was applied to the electric fuel pump, and a fluid consistent with avgas exited from the same supply line. The engine's crankshaft propeller flange had separated from the crankshaft and remained attached to the propeller. A propeller flange was welded to the engine's crankshaft and the engine was test run with no anomalies detected.
Probable cause
A lossof engine power due to fuel starvation as a result of the pilot's improper fuel system management and failure to select a tank containing fuel. A factor was the dark night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI06FA090
- Event ID
- 20060310X00288
- Case number
- CHI06FA090
- 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 2006-03-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f16c4d0cbe88703fdf59e0834b93b45695fa53c963cdc738307e0f1268d67002; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:30:18.651Z.