CEN21LA219 · Beech B24R
Beech B24R · Accident: fuel contamination during initial climb
From Lewis University Airport (LOT) to Eagle Creek Airpark (EYE)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN21LA219
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 B24R
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 24
- 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
- N9199S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lewis University Airport (LOT), Romeoville, ILTo Eagle Creek Airpark (EYE), Indianapolis, IN
- Aircraft age
- About 46 years (built 1975)
- 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 contamination
- 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 › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot fueled the airplane using containers kept in the flying club hangar. Unknown to the pilot, one of the containers contained water, which he added to the left fuel tank. He noted that no water was observed when the fuel tanks were sumped as part of the preflight inspection; although, there was likely insufficient time for the water to settle out. The engine run-up, takeoff, and initial climb were conducted with the right fuel tank selected and were routine. However, when the pilot changed to the left fuel tank during the climb, the engine lost power. He executed a forced landing to an interstate highway.
About 2-1/2 gallons of water were drained from the left fuel tank following the accident. No water was detected in the right fuel tank. No anomalies with respect to the engine assembly or the airframe fuel system were observed.
An individual associated with the flying club reported that he was cleaning an airplane in the hangar the day before the accident. He had used a fuel container to get water and marked it, “water for cleaning.” At the end of the day, he left the container next to the airplane with the intention of continuing the next day. There were 2 to 3 gallons of water in the container at the time.
Probable cause
The total loss of engine power due to fuel contamination as a result of the pilot’s improper fueling of the airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN21LA219
- Event ID
- 20210513103082
- Case number
- CEN21LA219
- 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, cause areas. 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: e08e043b6681f1b45ed3827dbff115285d84cbb3cc3f2851ebd80aadb8f80e63; retrieved 2026-09-16T14:02:41.598Z.