ERA09LA108 · Beech E18S
North American Leasing Beech E18S · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure during initial climb
From Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) to Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09LA108
- 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 E18S
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 18
- 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
- N7765N
- Operator
- North American Leasing
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW), Fort Myers, FLTo Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), Ft. Lauderdale, FL
- 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
- 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
- Powerplant system/component malfunction/failure
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
- Not determined › Not determined
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was departing on the fourth and final flight of the day. The pilot checked the fuel quantity using the fuel quantity gauge in the cockpit prior to departure and estimated that the airplane had approximately 100 gallons of fuel. During the initial climb, immediately following gear retraction and power adjustment, the right engine experienced a total loss of power. He switched the fuel selector from the right main fuel tank to the right auxiliary wing fuel tank, and then back to the right main fuel tank; however, he was unable to restore engine power. He also unsuccessfully attempted to feather the right propeller. The pilot had not accelerated the airplane to optimal single-engine rate of climb speed. Unable to maintain altitude, the airplane impacted trees and came to rest facing the opposite direction of travel. Examination of the fuel tanks revealed that the main wing fuel tanks were void of fuel and had not been ruptured. The auxiliary fuel tanks were ruptured but had evidence of fuel, and the rear auxiliary tank contained fuel of an unknown quantity. Examination of the engine, fuel selector valves, propeller, and engine feathering oil pump revealed no mechanical malfunctions that would have prohibited normal operation. The carburetor for the right engine was void of fuel. According to the airplane flight manual, the main fuel tanks must be used "for takeoffs, landing, and flight through rough air." The manual also indicated that the auxiliary tanks should be selected only in cruise flight.
Probable cause
The failure of the right propeller to go to the feathered position for undetermined reasons following a total loss of right engine power during initial climb due to fuel starvation as a result of the pilot's improper fuel planning.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09LA108
- Event ID
- 20081228X52120
- Case number
- ERA09LA108
- 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. 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: aa6535efc24961fb635220ac9b5facd0eb1f9343014729826aa94c1a1d43a071; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:38:23.405Z.