ERA23FA265 · Beech B35
Beech B35 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) en route
From Hampton County Airport (3J0) to Jim Hamilton L.B. Owens Airport (CUB)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA23FA265
- 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
- 1 · 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 B35
- 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
- N8725A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hampton County Airport (3J0), Hampton, SCTo Jim Hamilton L.B. Owens Airport (CUB), Columbia, SC
- Aircraft age
- About 73 years (built 1950)
- 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
- En route
- 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 (partial)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the airplane was on a short cross-country flight in visual meteorological conditions and was receiving flight following services from air traffic control. About 20 minutes into the flight, while flying at an altitude of about 1,200 ft above the ground, the pilot advised the air traffic controller that there was a problem with the airplane’s engine. The controller called out the nearest airport to the pilot, which at that point was about 6 miles away and behind him. The pilot responded that the airplane would not be able to reach the airport, and no further transmissions were received from the pilot. The airplane subsequently impacted trees and terrain and a postimpact fire ensued. Postaccident examination of the wreckage revealed that the engine’s No. 3 cylinder intake pushrod was bent, but that the corresponding pushrod tube did not display evidence of any impact-related damage. The corresponding intake valve displayed a buildup of carbon deposits on the valve stem and both the intake and exhaust tappets for the No. 3 cylinder displayed abnormal wear. All of these signatures suggest that the No. 3 cylinder intake valve may have stuck open during the flight. With the valve stuck in an open position, the introduction of exhaust gases into the engine’s air intake system likely would have resulted in a reduction of engine power such that engine was no longer able to produce sufficient thrust to sustain level flight. Review of the airplane’s registration and maintenance records revealed that the pilot had purchased the airplane about 9 months before the accident. Shortly thereafter, while on a long cross-country flight, the airplane’s engine began leaking oil. Maintenance personnel subsequently inspected the airplane and identified numerous discrepancies with the engine related to the leaking oil, as well as leaking and deteriorated exhaust system components (though they did not specifically identify any issues related to the No. 3 cylinder or its intake valve). The records did not reflect that any of the identified discrepancies had been rectified or that the airplane had undergone any other inspections. It is possible that, had the airplane’s engine undergone more extensive inspection, troubleshooting, and repair, issues with the No. 3 intake valve could have been identified and addressed before the accident flight.
Probable cause
A stuck No. 3 cylinder intake valve, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power and subsequent forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA23FA265
- Event ID
- 20230610192348
- Case number
- ERA23FA265
- 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: bd9a2111827d15e433a6973e2a594cbce6b31ea57e9f3e3fcf594656f4254e61; retrieved 2026-09-15T08:01:11.507Z.