ATL07LA057 · Beech 95-B55
Midline Airfreight Beech 95-B55 · Accident: explosion while standing
From Fulton County Airport Brown Field (FTY) to Cobb County International Airport-McCollum Field (RYY)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL07LA057
- 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 95-B55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 55
- 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
- N500JP
- Operator
- Midline Airfreight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fulton County Airport Brown Field (FTY), Atlanta, GATo Cobb County International Airport-McCollum Field (RYY), Atlanta, 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- 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
- Explosion
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Fuel system, line fitting › Leak
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
At the initiation of a right engine start, the pilot heard a "thump" and observed fire from the right engine cowling. After engine shutdown, examination of the right wing revealed that the right wing, from the engine nacelle to the wing tip, was damaged. Servicing of the right fuel tank after the accident revealed a leak at the "B-nut" fitting on the output side of the fuel pump, whether the pump was actuated or not. Examination of maintenance records for the accident airplane revealed that the right main fuel cell was replaced approximately 3 months, and 12 flight hours prior to the accident flight.
Probable cause
The improper maintenance of the "B-nut" fitting adjacent to the fuel pump by maintenance personnel, resulting in a fuel leak and wing explosion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL07LA057
- Event ID
- 20070403X00366
- Case number
- ATL07LA057
- 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 2007-03-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 902a49eaf13dbabdc37b2846adc9ac62ad6a5f8e2ea0a2575ef98ef3e99a8954; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:58:00.128Z.