MIA08CA120 · Beech S35
Beech S35 · Accident: fuel exhaustion en route
From Bucker Field (TE74) to Bay Minette Municipal Airport (1R8)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA08CA120
- 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 S35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N83LP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bucker Field (TE74), Point, TXTo Bay Minette Municipal Airport (1R8), Bay Minette, AL
- 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
- En route · descent
- Defining eventThe 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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 of a Beech S35 stated that he departed on an instrument flight rules flight in visual flight conditions, from Texas to Alabama, without filling the fuel tanks. He climbed to his cruising altitude, and flew on the right main fuel tank until the fuel was exhausted. He switched the fuel selector to the left main fuel tank and requested a lower altitude from air traffic control (ATC). During the approved descent the engine lost power. He turned on the boost pump and the engine continued to windmill. The pilot stated that he did not engage the starter because he expected the engine to start. He switched the fuel selector back to the right main fuel tank, then left main fuel tank, and back to the right main fuel tank. The engine did not start and the left main fuel tank gauge indicated low. He checked the global position system for the nearest airport, cancelled his instrument flight plan with the air traffic controller, and continued direct to the airport, entering a left downwind while descending. The engine attempted to start and stopped. The pilot turned base, and lowered the landing gear very close to the ground after clearing trees. The left wing stalled, the left wing tip and nose of the airplane collided with the ground, and the airplane came to a complete stop upright. The pilot further stated, " As far as I can tell, I landed without fuel."
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate fuel calculations resulting in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA08CA120
- Event ID
- 20080709X01000
- Case number
- MIA08CA120
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: b2fcf6af964235606ab081f917c879e57dcdb8493fadb1e51461c0f66d8bcf0c; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:52:44.783Z.