ERA17LA215 · Beech B23
Beech B23 · Accident: fuel starvation during initial climb
From Odell Williamson Municipal Airport (60J) to Stag Air Park (7NC1)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17LA215
- 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
- 0
- 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 B23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 23
- 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
- N4023T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Odell Williamson Municipal Airport (60J), Ocean Isle Beach, NCTo Stag Air Park (7NC1), Burgaw, NC
- Aircraft age
- About 49 years (built 1968)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot reported that, before the accident flight, he had conducted a cross-country, personal flight uneventfully with the fuel selector positioned to the left fuel tank. After landing, the pilot added 15 gallons of fuel to the left tank and about 5 gallons of fuel to the right tank. The passenger reported that, before the return flight, the pilot told him that he was going to use the right fuel tank for the return flight. Engine start, taxi, engine run-up, and takeoff were normal. The pilot reported that, when the airplane reached about 500 ft mean sea level, he noticed that the airplane was not climbing as expected and that the engine rpm had reduced to less than 2,000. He added that, as he started a "slow bank" left turn back toward the airport, the airplane would no longer climb. He considered switching fuel tanks but chose not to because the engine was developing some power and he was concerned switching tanks might cause a total loss of power. Once the pilot realized that the airplane would not reach the runway, he conducted a forced landing into a wooded area. During the landing, the left wing struck a tree, and the airplane then came to rest inverted. Both wings sustained substantial damage.
Examination of the airframe and engine revealed that the fuel selector was positioned halfway between the left and right tank positions; no other preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures were found that would have precluded normal operation. It is likely that the midrange position of the fuel selector led to the engine being starved of fuel, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper positioning of the fuel selector between the left and right fuel tank positions, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power due to fuel starvation and a subsequent forced landing into trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17LA215
- Event ID
- 20170628X01152
- Case number
- ERA17LA215
- 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: 3e26537f985e500f1adf04d2aacfe965e32e4d1ef2f80c34a5701cbfd246922b; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:28:02.289Z.