WPR13LA346 · Beech 35-B33
Beech 35-B33 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Lone Pine/Death Valley Airport (KO26) to Corona Municipal Airport (KAJO)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's damage. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR13LA346
- 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 35-B33
- 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
- N82182
- Operator
- Sohail Simjee
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lone Pine/Death Valley Airport (KO26), Lone Pine, CATo Corona Municipal Airport (KAJO), Corona, CA
- 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
- Loss of engine power (partial)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial Possible conflict
Cause areas
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he performed a full preflight and engine run-up before departure. He leaned the fuel mixture for takeoff, and the auxiliary fuel pump switch was in the "off" position. After takeoff, at 300 ft above ground level, the pilot noticed that the airplane was not climbing normally and had entered a slight descent. The engine then began to sputter. The pilot stated that he did not have time to execute the "Engine Failure After Liftoff" procedures outlined in the Pilot's Operating Handbook. He performed a gear-up, forced landing straight ahead onto flat, desert terrain. After the airplane stopped, the pilot noticed a fire emanating from the left wing. The three passengers egressed through the right cabin door, and the pilot followed. The fire spread and subsequently engulfed most of the airplane's cabin before firefighters arrived and put it out. A postaccident examination of the fuel system and engine did not reveal any mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. It is likely that, if the pilot had executed the applicable emergency procedures, the engine might have regained power.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power after takeoff for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examination did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's decision to not execute the "Engine Failure After Liftoff" emergency procedures outlined in the Pilot’s Operating Handbook.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR13LA346
- Event ID
- 20130729X63147
- Case number
- WPR13LA346
- 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: df839969906226281e9eeb6596d60987bac95125f1d5a23dd5c4fb47eaaca985; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:22:08.406Z.