Beechcraft V35B N3047W

Summary

On 25 September 1999 at about 22:49 local time, a Beechcraft V35B registered N3047W was involved in an accident near Henrietta, Missouri, United States. 4 people were on board and one was seriously injured, 3 had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

25 September 1999 at 22:49

Classification

Accident

Location

Henrietta, Missouri, United States

Coordinates

39.2293, -93.9298

Aircraft

Beechcraft V35B

Registration

N3047W

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Lexington → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CHI99LA347

1 person was seriously injured.

The engine failure due to mismanagement of the fuel system and aircraft control not maintained by the pilot.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that while in level flight, at approximately 1,000 feet above ground level, the engine sputtered, surged, and quit. The pilot reported that he decided that he was going to make his forced landing to an east-west road. The last memory the pilot had of the accident was turning, to the right, in order to line-up with the road. According to a passenger, while the pilot was maneuvering the airplane for the emergency landing she, '...looked out and saw the tops of the trees. It was very shortly after that it felt like something just picked up the left side of the plane and we hit the ground.' The right wing separated during the impact with terrain, rupturing the right main fuel tank. The left main fuel tank remained intact and 14-gallons of fuel was drained from it. The two wing-tip tanks were destroyed during the impact with terrain. A passenger verified that there was fuel present in both wingtip tanks by visually noting the quantity, during the flight, through transparent windows on the wing-tip tanks. Examination of the engine and its fuel system revealed no fuel present in the fuel injection system. No additional anomalies were found with the engine or with the airplane's fuel system. According to the owner of the airplane, there was approximately 60-gallons of fuel on board the airplane when the pilot originally departed Independence Memorial Airport. The owner reported that the fuel was distributed equally in four fuel tanks, two main tanks and two wing-tip tanks. The accident flight was estimated to be 45-minutes in duration.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.