MIA07CA015 · Bellanca BL-17-30
Bellanca BL-17-30 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Palm Beach County Park Airport (LNA) to Palm Beach County Park Airport (LNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA07CA015
- 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
Bellanca BL-17-30
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca BL-17
- 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
- N6663V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Palm Beach County Park Airport (LNA), Lantana, FLTo Palm Beach County Park Airport (LNA)
- 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 exhaustion; Tree(s)
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, 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 about 3/4 mile on final approach the engine ceased operating. After switching fuel tanks he said he tried to restart the engine, but the engine would not restart. He said he focused on flying the airplane, and as the airplane descended it impacted "trees, power lines, and left a wheel in the roof of a house." An FAA inspector responded to the scene of the accident and performed a detailed examination of the airplane. According to the inspector, no anomalies were noted with the airplane's fuel, electrical and induction systems, and about 6 to 8 ounces of auto fuel was found in the right fuel tank. No additional fuel was found in the airplane, or at the accident scene. In addition, the inspector stated that the airplane did not have a supplemental type certificate to permit the use of automobile fuel, and that the airplane had last received an annual inspection on January 1, 1984. The inspector also stated that the pilot, who was not an FAA certificated mechanic, stated that he performed all of the maintenance on the airplane. The pilot stated that he last completed a flight review in 1996. In addition, the pilot's last medical examination was dated June 23, 1996, and a review of FAA records showed that his license was suspended on November 8, 1996.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper preflight planning/decision which resulted in total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA07CA015
- Event ID
- 20061208X01754
- Case number
- MIA07CA015
- 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: fba501371c4817db253c333c14137998345c1d8f174c8f3fe9886d7220ea172e; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:39:11.188Z.