CEN14CA482 · Beech 95 B55 (T42A) A
Beech 95 B55 (T42A) A · Accident: fuel starvation en route
From Hilltop Lakes, TX to Hearne, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14CA482
- 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 95 B55 (T42A) A
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 95
- 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
- N5812K
- Operator
- Shoemaker James W
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hilltop Lakes, TXTo Hearne, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 49 years (built 1965)
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft power plant
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot performed a preflight of the airplane, to include fuel selector valves in preparation of an upcoming trip. The purpose of the accident flight was to reposition to another airport where fuel was available to refuel the airplane. Approximately 30 minutes into the repositioning flight the left engine began to surge and then quit, followed by the right engine quitting. The pilot was unable to troubleshoot the situation due to his altitude and performed an emergency landing. The airplane was substantially damaged during the landing. The pilot shutdown the airplane and egressed, positioning the fuel selectors to OFF in the process. Examination of the airplane revealed fuel present in the main tanks and both axillary tanks were empty. No anomalies were noted with airplane or engines. The circumstances of the accident are consistent with fuel starvation due to mismanagement of fuel inflight.
Probable cause
Mismanagement of fuel, which resulted in a total loss of power due to fuel starvation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14CA482
- Event ID
- 20140904X55458
- Case number
- CEN14CA482
- 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: e755fe24c69ae3f84a19f1611469fe8ad9c6e6c3cfbab59d095e1436a30bae65; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:43:14.402Z.