GAA20CA042 · Beech 19 B19
Beech 19 B19 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Fayette County Airport (FYE) to Fulton Airport (1M7)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's damage. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA20CA042
- 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 19 B19
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 19
- 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
- N2177W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fayette County Airport (FYE), Somerville, TNTo Fulton Airport (1M7), Fulton, KY
- Aircraft age
- About 45 years (built 1974)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial Possible conflict
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, shortly after takeoff, the engine "shut down" due to the fuel selector being in the "off" position. Subsequently, he made a forced landing to a field adjacent to the runway. He moved the fuel selector to the "on" position and then initiated a soft-field takeoff. During the takeoff roll, the airplane collided with an embankment, and it momentarily ascended before landing hard and then coming to rest upright. The nose landing gear separated from the airplane, and the fuel tanks ruptured. A fire ensued, which consumed the airplane. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to move the fuel selector position to the "on" position before takeoff, which resulted in a total loss of engine power and necessitated a forced landing to a field shortly after takeoff, and his subsequent improper decision to take off from unsuitable terrain, which resulted in collision with an embankment and a postcrash fire.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA20CA042
- Event ID
- 20191009X72523
- Case number
- GAA20CA042
- 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: 1d91148b21e520d4b7356d09ce8266a8ab1e9b587431a7add28dc4856063bb20; retrieved 2026-09-16T10:20:01.909Z.