DFW06LA122 · Beech C23
Beech C23 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Bishop-Windham Airport (07R) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW06LA122
- 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 C23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 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
- N5021M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bishop-Windham Airport (07R), Bishop, TXTo 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
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Flare, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The owner of the airplane reported a test flight was required due to the re-installation of the O-360-A4J engine following a major overhaul. The airplane was operated several times after the engine was installed and all the adjustments were made. The aircraft was topped off with a full load of fuel prior to the test flight. The owner of the airplane reported that he was the pilot-in-command of the flight; however, he was occupying the right front seat of the airplane. The left seat was being occupied by another pilot, who was also an airframe and powerplant (A&P) mechanic who performed the engine overhauled and signed off the annual inspection. The mechanic also held an FAA inspection authorization (IA). On the day of the accident, after a complete engine run up and magneto check were completed, the airplane taxied for takeoff on Runway 15. The pilot added that the takeoff was normal and the airplane was indicating a rate of climb of 700 feet-per-minute while climbing at 70 knots indicated. The owner added that as the airplane approached the departure end, the pilot rolled into a 30 degree bank to the left while the airplane continued to climb. The owner added that the engine was "running well until it suddenly stopped." The owner further stated that the pilot was not reacting to the sudden loss of engine power so he said "I've got it," leveled the wings, and tried to keep the nose level and pancaked-in." The FAA inspector confirmed that the ground scars and the crushing damage sustained by the forward area of the fuselage were consistent with the airplane impacting the ground in a pronounced nose-low attitude. The inspector was also able to confirm the presence of fuel aboard the airplane and he was also able to establish flight control continuity. The engine was found in the inverted position, buried under the nose of the airplane. The propeller was still attached to the engine and neither propeller blade had any leading edge damage or "S" bending. The owner of the airplane reported that the sudden loss of engine power was due to the failure of the engine driven fuel pump.
Probable cause
The delayed landing flare by the pilot which resulted in a hard landing. A contributing factor was the loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW06LA122
- Event ID
- 20060517X00585
- Case number
- DFW06LA122
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2006-05-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2f0c4ad8c469c4069e92b69c0c4a247d8014d2a46f1100ac65b7612f76961577; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:58:19.135Z.