CEN12LA558 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure en route
From Goodland Municipal Airport (KGLD) to Fort Morgan Municipal Airport (KFMM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12LA558
- 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
- N262EA
- Operator
- 21st Century Equipment
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Goodland Municipal Airport (KGLD), Goodland, KSTo Fort Morgan Municipal Airport (KFMM), Fort Morgan, CO
- 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
- 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 power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Shortly after leveling off at a cruise altitude of 8,500 feet mean sea level, the pilot noted that the engine rpm increased to above its red line limit (2,700 rpm). The pilot was able to reduce power to 2,500 rpm but was unable to restore thrust and maintain altitude, so he made a forced landing in a nearby wheat field. During postaccident examination, the engine turbocharger controller was found covered with oil. Examination of an elbow fitting on the turbocharger wastegate control revealed that an O-ring was improperly installed and flattened, which allowed oil to seep out. When the O-ring was reseated and the elbow fitting torqued, no seepage was observed.
Probable cause
The improper installation of the wastegate controller O-ring, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12LA558
- Event ID
- 20120820X30520
- Case number
- CEN12LA558
- 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: a7fc21a8cd0fff03fdb155bf2c920b96906c4eb0f1cc7adb79f2eadd6c2b174a; retrieved 2026-09-15T19:26:54.213Z.