CEN10LA005 · Beech A36
Aero Mark JM Beech A36 · Accident: fuel starvation en route
From New Century AirCenter Airport (KIXD) to Corpus Christi International Airport (KCRP)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN10LA005
- 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
- N991PP
- Operator
- Aero Mark JM
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From New Century AirCenter Airport (KIXD), New Century Air, KSTo Corpus Christi International Airport (KCRP), Corpus Christi, TX
- 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 · cruise
- 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 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
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a cross-country flight the pilot tracked his fuel usage by watching the engine analyzer; however, about 180 miles from his destination airport the engine lost power and the pilot performed a forced landing, resulting in substantial to the airplane. During the descent the pilot unsuccessfully tried to restart the engine by switching the fuel selector between the right and left fuel tanks. An on-site examination of the airplane revealed that the that the airplane's left wing fuel tank contained about 2 cups of fuel and when the right wing fuel cap was removed, fuel would spill from the tank. An additional examination of the fuel selector, airframe, and an engine test run failed to reveal a preimpact anomaly that would have precluded a restart of the engine. The pilot later added that while trying to restart the engine he did not turn on the electric-driven fuel pump. Additionally, he noted that the checklist that he carried in the aircraft failed to mention the electric-driven fuel pump; however, he noted that the pilot's operating handbook (POH) did mention the electric pump.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation as a result of the pilot's improper fuel management. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's failure to follow the correct engine restart checklist.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN10LA005
- Event ID
- 20091005X55611
- Case number
- CEN10LA005
- 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: eb59756ab523ce347b897e5cfc9380f9abdf08c9f00e2f7c04461347f48e6272; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:22:54.823Z.