WPR17LA059 · Beech E 55 UNDESIGNAT
California Aeronautical University Beech E 55 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Meadows Field (BFL) to Meadows Field (BFL)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR17LA059
- 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 E 55 UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft E-55
- 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
- N711YK
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Meadows Field (BFL), Bakersfield, CATo Meadows Field (BFL), Bakersfield, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 44 years (built 1973)
- 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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 control in flight
- 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 systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot reported that, following an uneventful flight to break in the recently installed rebuilt left engine, he entered the airport traffic pattern. As the airplane crossed over the runway threshold, he reduced power, and the airplane began to settle into ground effect. Subsequently, the pilot initiated a go-around. When he applied power, the right engine responded; however, the left engine did not respond, and the airplane immediately began rolling and yawing left. The pilot reduced power and applied control inputs, but the airplane continued to yaw left and then impacted terrain.
Photographs obtained from airport management showed that, immediately following the accident, the left auxiliary fuel pump switch was in the "low" position. Both engines were test run in an engine test cell, and they started and operated normally at various power settings. The left auxiliary fuel pump was operationally tested and compared to the limits noted on the manufacturer's data plate. During functional tests in the low-boost setting, the fuel flow rate was almost double the minimum specification for the low-boost setting and higher than the minimum high-boost fuel flow rate. Leaking fluid was observed around the outlet fitting, so the outlet fitting was removed; an O-ring was found damaged, which likely resulted in fuel leaking around the outlet fitting. The investigation could not determine how or when the O-ring was damaged. A new O-ring was installed, and functional tests were conducted again. In the low-boost setting, the fuel flow rate was again more than double the minimum specification for the low-boost setting and higher than the minimum high-boost fuel flow rate. During a review of airframe and engine maintenance records, no entries were found pertaining to the left auxiliary fuel pump.
The Pilot's Operating Handbook specified that, before takeoff or landing, the auxiliary fuel pumps should be off unless the ambient temperature is 90°F or above, in which case they should be set at "low." The ambient temperature at the time of the accident was 64°F. Therefore, it is likely that, during the attempted go-around, the left auxiliary fuel pump was positioned to "low" and that this, in combination with the excessive fuel flow rate while positioned to the low-boost setting, resulted in the loss of engine power.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to select the proper fuel boost pump setting for the left auxiliary fuel pump, which allowed for an excessive fuel flow to the left engine, which resulted in a total loss of engine power and airplane control during an attempted go-around.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR17LA059
- Event ID
- 20170202X05920
- Case number
- WPR17LA059
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2017-02-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b00f7d5e8fcec3e156f0792c59d11ca26ebf6f0e05e3e02c020a9cdc3d800b26; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:59:27.636Z.