WPR24LA259 · Beech C23
Beech C23 · Accident during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR24LA259
- 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 C23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 23
- 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
- N2248L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 47 years (built 1977)
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The accident flight was the airplane’s first flight since its recent annual inspection. The pilot reported that there were about 25 gallons of fuel in the wing tanks during the preflight inspection. During the initial climb after takeoff, about 300 to 400 ft above the runway, the engine lost total power. The pilot maneuvered the airplane to an open field, and during the subsequent forced landing, the right wing and propeller impacted the ground. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed substantial damage to both wings and the fuselage.
Examination of the airplane at the accident site revealed adequate fuel for normal operation in both wing tanks, and the presence of fuel in components that had been impact-separated from the engine.
A follow-up examination revealed no anomalies with the engine or fuel system that would have precluded normal operation during the accident flight. Organic material (bougainvillea leaves and insect larvae) was found in some fuel system components; however, it is likely that this occurred during the several months that the wreckage was in storage before examination. The examination also revealed damage to the starter that was consistent with impact damage.
Given the lack of anomalies found during the postaccident examination, the reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR24LA259
- Event ID
- 20240729194793
- Case number
- WPR24LA259
- 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: f7b579b689e964f55ceef5210388b5027cea7e44881bdcbb39f1d50055ee9e3d; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:05:58.288Z.