ATL06LA114 · Beech D45
Beech D45 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Decatur County Industrial Air Park (KBGE) to Decatur County Industrial Air Park (KBGE)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL06LA114
- 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 D45
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 45
- 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
- N342MN
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Decatur County Industrial Air Park (KBGE), Bainbridge, GATo Decatur County Industrial Air Park (KBGE)
- 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
- Partial 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; Stall
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that he was on initial climb from runway 27, at 50 feet and 80 knots, when the engine started a "popping" noise and the engine had a partial loss of power. The pilot turned the boost pump on, the "popping" noise continued, and he made a right turn towards runway 14. The airspeed decreased to between 58 to 60 knots. The airplane stalled, collided with the ground, and a post crash fire ensued. The Beech Model D45 Flight Manual states the airplane will stall at 71 mph with a 0-degree angle of bank, and at 73 mph with a 20-degree angle of bank. The right main fuel tank was consumed by fire. Fuel samples were taken from the header tank and the left wing fuel tank. The samples were forwarded to a petroleum laboratory for further analysis. Examination of the fuel samples revealed the fuel would not have caused a loss of engine power or malfunction. Review of the engine logbook revealed the engine was overhauled on May 30, 2006, and the engine has been operated for 15 hours since it was reinstalled on the airplane. Examination of the engine revealed the fuel inlet (unmetered pressure) line was crossed with the fuel return (to fuel pump) line on the engine fuel pump. The fuel lines were repositioned and an engine run was initiated. The engine started and ran smoothly at 1,000 rpm. The rpm was increased to 2,200 rpm with no anomalies. The engine was not increased to full operating rpm due to damage to the airframe. The engine was shut down with the mixture control.
Probable cause
The improper maintenance installation of the fuel inlet line by other maintenance personnel resulting in a partial loss of engine power after takeoff due to fuel starvation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL06LA114
- Event ID
- 20060803X01085
- Case number
- ATL06LA114
- 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. 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: 54f3065f37d5874db899f5d51e8b8c8b02f5b03a243b7b9d7bab982f429208e2; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:42:28.414Z.