Beechcraft 35 C33 N20XY

Summary

On 5 January 2016 at about 01:15 local time, a Beechcraft 35 C33 registered N20XY was involved in an accident near Henderson, Nevada, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

5 January 2016 at 01:15

Classification

Accident

Location

Henderson, Nevada, United States

Nearest airport

Henderson Executive (HND)

Coordinates

35.9908, -115.1331

Aircraft

Beechcraft 35 C33

Registration

N20XY

Category

Airplane

Year built

1967

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Porterville → Henderson

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR16LA048

Nobody was injured.

A partial loss of engine power during final approach for reasons that could not be determined based on available information.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The private pilot and flight instructor were performing an instructional cross-country flight to familiarize the pilot with the newly-purchased airplane and return the airplane to the pilot's home airport. The pilot reported that, during final approach for landing at an intermediate airport, the engine experienced a partial loss of power. He tried to troubleshoot; however, there was insufficient altitude to restart the engine, and the airplane impacted the terrain short of the runway. The nose landing gear collapsed and the airplane came to rest nose-down. The left wing fuel tank contained about 12 gallons of fuel, and the right wing tank was full. A postaccident examination of the recovered airframe and engine revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The engine was run on the airframe through various power settings to include idle and full power; however, the engine could only be run smoothly at idle after leaning the mixture control. Application of throttle required a richening of the mixture control to obtain full power. The engine-driven fuel pump, throttle body/fuel metering unit, and the fuel manifold valve were removed and subsequently tested individually. The testing revealed no anomalies that would have prevented these components from operating normally on the engine; therefore, the reason for the partial loss of engine power could not be determined.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.