CEN18LA319 · Beech 35 J35
Beech 35 J35 · Accident: loss of engine power (total) on approach
From Marshall County Airport (C75) to Starke County Airport (OXI)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN18LA319
- 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 J35
- 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
- N533JW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Marshall County Airport (C75), Lacon, ILTo Starke County Airport (OXI), Knox, IN
- Aircraft age
- About 60 years (built 1958)
- 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
- 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 (total)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot and three passengers were on a cross-country flight in a single-engine airplane. About 10 miles from the destination airport, the pilot switched to the fullest fuel tank, entered the traffic pattern, and reduced the throttle to slow the airplane. While on final approach, he advanced the throttle; however, the engine did not respond. The pilot turned the boost pump on to "emergency – high," but the engine still did not respond. Shortly after, the pilot turned the boost pump off and conducted a forced landing in a field, during which the engine was bent downward from the firewall and the fuselage sustained substantial damage.
The on-site examination found sufficient fuel available in each of the wing fuel tanks. Additionally, fuel was present in the fuel lines near the engine's fuel manifold. A detailed engine examination and download of the engine monitor were conducted after airplane recovery. A review of the engine data for the day of the accident found three files. The last file corresponded to the accident flight, and the monitor indicated 30.4 gallons used. The pilot reported the fuel at last takeoff was 33 gallons.
The engine examination did not find any evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Although data from the engine monitor indicated that the airplane was very low on fuel, the on-site examination showed various levels of fuel available in the fuel tanks. Thus, it is likely that the airplane's engine monitor did not accurately reflect the airplane's correct fuel state. Based on the available evidence, the reason for the total loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
The total loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined based on the available evidence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN18LA319
- Event ID
- 20180805X20630
- Case number
- CEN18LA319
- 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, coordinates. 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: f81cb984431c504f9e86f76eee7e0561097ef3dc610c0a7f4bda525a6641da60; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:03:10.919Z.