Beechcraft 23 N2388Q

Summary

On 7 May 2005 at about 16:01 local time, a Beechcraft 23 registered N2388Q was involved in an accident near Tucson, Arizona, United States. One person was on board and one 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

7 May 2005 at 16:01

Classification

Accident

Location

Tucson, Arizona, United States

Nearest airport

Tucson International (TUS)

Coordinates

32.1150, -110.9411

Aircraft

Beechcraft 23

Registration

N2388Q

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Tucson → Pinal Airpark

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX05LA159

1 person had minor injuries.

a loss of engine power due to the fatigue fracture and separation of the mixture control cable. The fatigue crack resulted from inadequate installation techniques by unknown maintenance personnel.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The engine lost power during the takeoff initial climb and the airplane was damaged during a forced landing. The run-up check was uneventful. When the airplane was about 400 feet above ground level turning the left crosswind leg of the airport traffic pattern, the engine lost power completely. The pilot made a forced landing between a taxiway and the perimeter fence on the airport. Post accident test-run of the engine revealed that the mixture control cable was fractured 0.35 inches from the set screw, which attaches it to the carburetor, and the carburetor mixture arm was free to move, uncommanded. This fracture was hidden by the outer sheath that covers the mixture control cable and movement of the cockpit mixture control did not produce corresponding movement of the carburetor mixture arm. With the fracture surfaces realigned, the wire appeared to have been bent nearly 90 degrees from its normally straight path. A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of both fracture surfaces of the wire revealed the existence of a fatigue crack about 1/4 of the wire's cross-sectional area and perpendicular to the wire's surface. The origin of the fatigue crack was on the outside surface of the 90-degree bend in the wire, which suggests that the crack initiated and propagated during service while the main portion of the wire was under compression loads. The presence of the fatigue crack is indicative of an installation problem, such as overtorquing of the set screw. The fracture of this cable would not allow the pilot to properly set the mixture from the cockpit control to the carburetor.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.