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CEN25LA176 · Beech C90

28 Apr 2025 · Lancaster, TX, United States

GM Intercom Beech C90 · Accident: fuel exhaustion on approach

From Felipe Ángeles International Airport (MMSM) to Dallas Love Field (DAL)

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Event

NTSB case
CEN25LA176
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
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 C90

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 90
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
N501MS
Operator
GM Intercom
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Felipe Ángeles International Airport (MMSM), Zumpango de OcampoTo Dallas Love Field (DAL), Dallas, TX
Aircraft age
About 51 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
Approach · IFR final 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
Fuel exhaustion
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 › Action/decision
  • Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
  • Personnel issues › Psychological
  • Personnel issues › Task performance

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The twin-engine airplane departed for the international cross-country flight with 380 gallons of Jet A fuel onboard. No fuel stops were performed during the flight. During the approach to the destination airport, the pilot reported that the right engine instruments began to display a decrease in power, until a total loss of power occurred. Shortly after, the left engine sustained a total loss of power. The pilot performed a forced landing to a flat corn field, located about 19.5 miles southeast of the destination airport. The two controllable pitch propellers were not feathered, and the main landing gear was not extended prior to landing in the field. The airplane came to rest upright in the field. The three occupants were able to egress from the airplane without further incident. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and the left wing, and no evidence of a reported fire was noted with the right engine. During the recovery operation, the airframe fuel system was found intact and there were no visible signs of fuel leakage on the airframe. The airframe can contain up to 384 gallons of usable fuel. For the left side of the airplane, about 1 pint of fuel was recovered from the main fuel tank and about 9 gallons of fuel were recovered from the nacelle fuel tank. For the right side of the airplane, about 2 pints of fuel were recovered from the main fuel tank and no fuel was recovered from the nacelle fuel tank. The pilot did not provide any accident flight fuel planning calculation documents. The airplane was not equipped with a low fuel warning light system, nor was it required to be.

Probable cause

The pilot’s improper fuel planning, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and a total loss of power to both engines.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CEN25LA176
Event ID
20250514200154
Case number
CEN25LA176
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, 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: 4d4c95aa34b3a7b2fef1d05a1af72877761de76526c03a4b70351b11393f02f1; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:53:02.231Z.