ATL06CA131 · Beech A36
Bienvee Beech A36 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during an emergency descent
From Brooksville–Tampa Bay Regional Airport (BKV) to Gwinnett County Briscoe Field (LZU)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL06CA131
- 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 A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 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
- N69PM
- Operator
- Bienvee
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brooksville–Tampa Bay Regional Airport (BKV), Brooksville, FLTo Gwinnett County Briscoe Field (LZU), Lawrenceville, 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
- Emergency descent
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that he was at cruise flight at 8,000 feet, when he was instructed by Atlanta Approach Control to descend, and maintain 6,000 feet. As the airplane descended through 6,500 feet the engine began to run rough and stopped. The pilot stated that he immediately switched fuel tanks, and began "to experiment with the manifold pressure knob, and mixture knobs, by pushing them in and out to see if the engine would run again." The pilot made a forced landing on I-75, and the left-wing tip collided with a guardrail. Examination of the airplane by a FAA inspector revealed that the left fuel tank was empty, and the right fuel tank had approximately 33 gallons of fuel. No evidence of fuel system leakage was noted. The airplane was recovered to the Macon Downtown Airport, and an engine start was accomplished using the start procedures in the Pilot's Operating Handbook. The engine was started using the airplane's fuel and battery power. The engine idled at 700 to 750 rpm and operated smoothly up to 1200 rpm; higher rpm was not attempted. The engine was shut down, and the 12 gallons of fuel was defueled from the right fuel tank, and placed in the left fuel tank. An engine start was accomplished using the start procedures with the fuel selector on the left tank. The engine started and idled at 700 to 750 rpm, and operated up to 1200 rpm. During the engine run the boost pump was turned off and on, and the engine continued to run smoothly. A review of the Pilot's Operating Handbook for the Raytheon Aircraft Beech A36, Section III: Emergency Procedures, Engine Failure, In Flight, states: "1. Fuel Selector Valve - SELECT OTHER TANK (feel for detent), 2. Magneto/Start Switch-CHECK BOTH, 3. Auxiliary Fuel Pump - HI, 4. Mixture Control- FULL RICH, then LEAN AS REQUIRED.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper fuel management, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel starvation and a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL06CA131
- Event ID
- 20061101X01591
- Case number
- ATL06CA131
- 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: aa61e5c81b6bb81e8a759d6683f68c222c3617ad9194ba7e2d25b3f0b67b140e; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:23:27.805Z.