CEN17LA255 · Beech A36 UNDESIGNAT
Beech A36 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: powerplant system/component malfunction/failure en route
From El Paso International Airport (KELP) to Dallas Love Field (KDAL)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17LA255
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 UNDESIGNAT
- 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
- N24LF
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From El Paso International Airport (KELP), El Paso, TXTo Dallas Love Field (KDAL), Dallas, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 37 years (built 1980)
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · climb to 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the initial climb after takeoff for a non-scheduled cargo flight, the engine experienced a partial loss of power and the commercial pilot reversed course to return to the airport. Unable to reach the runway, the pilot landed the airplane in a field, during which it sustained substantial damage.
An examination of the engine revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Thermal damage was noted on the lower left side of the engine near the turbocharger. Examination of the turbocharger and housing revealed thermal damage and erosion within the turbocharger housing. Further, the turbocharger had been reconfigured with a different compressor housing and the addition of wear washers. The erosion of the turbocharger housing and induction wye was likely caused by excessive internal turbine temperatures. This erosion would have reduced performance, but likely would not have resulted in the airplane's ability to climb or maintain flight. The reconfiguration of the turbocharger with the wear washers likely would result in the abnormal wear of the bearings and subsequent instability and rub, but would not have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined because a postaccident examination did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal engine operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN17LA255
- Event ID
- 20170704X12341
- Case number
- CEN17LA255
- 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 2017-07-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f05406573509fa727ca9291054e4728d420e08daf08cde8ea0112eb2f3fb8546; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:29:44.078Z.