Pilot forced to Ditch in the Atlantic | Navy Helicopter came to Rescue

At about 1:20 p.m. on August 17, 2018, a Beech N35 Bonanza was flying south along the Florida coast when its engine lost all power. The pilot was about 4,500 feet above the ground and was still several miles from the nearest suitable airport. The airplane, N1330Z, eventually came down in the Atlantic Ocean about three miles east of Mayport Naval Station in Mayport, Florida. The pilot survived without injury, but the airplane sustained substantial damage.

The flight had begun several hours earlier at Rutherford County Airport in Rutherfordton, North Carolina. The Bonanza departed at about 9:30 a.m. on a personal Part 91 flight bound for Ormond Beach Municipal Airport in Ormond Beach, Florida. The flight was being conducted under visual flight rules, and no flight plan had been filed. The weather at the accident site was visual, with 10 miles of visibility and no precipitation or obscuration reported.

The critical event occurred during cruise. The pilot reported that the engine suddenly lost total power. He attempted to restart it, but the attempts were unsuccessful. He contacted air traffic control and was advised that Mayport Naval Station was the closest airport. By then, however, the airplane could not reach the runway. With no airport within gliding distance, the pilot was forced to ditch.

The water landing occurred in the Atlantic approximately three miles east of Mayport Naval Station. A nearby ship rescued the pilot after the ditching. The NTSB recorded one person aboard and no injuries. The aircraft was subsequently recovered for examination.

The wreckage examination provided the first major clue to why the engine had stopped. Investigators found that both elevators had separated from the horizontal stabilizers during the ditching. Saltwater immersion prevented investigators from establishing continuity of the engine's valvetrain and powertrain, so the engine itself required more detailed examination.

Investigators found a broken fuel line connected to the fuel-flow sensor. The broken fitting was sent to the NTSB Materials Laboratory, where examination showed fracture features consistent with high-stress, low-cycle fatigue. The crack had begun on the outside of the aluminum fuel line and progressed through its thickness before the final fracture occurred.

The investigation then examined how the fuel-flow sensor had been installed. The installation drawings provided several approved mounting arrangements, including configurations that supported the sensor with a bracket and flexible hoses. The installation on N1330Z, however, did not use the required support arrangement identified in the applicable drawing. The NTSB concluded that the lack of the intended support allowed stresses to act on the fuel line until fatigue cracking developed.

The sequence was therefore more specific than a simple engine failure. The fuel line associated with the fuel-flow sensor fractured after developing a fatigue crack. That failure interrupted the fuel supply and caused fuel starvation. Fuel starvation then produced the total loss of engine power that left the Bonanza unable to reach Mayport.

The NTSB also reviewed the aircraft's maintenance records. The records documented installation of an Insight G-2 engine-monitoring system in January 2016, including exhaust-gas-temperature and cylinder-head-temperature probes. The available records did not identify when the fuel-flow sensor itself had been installed. That missing installation record meant investigators could not establish the precise history of the sensor installation from the maintenance logbook.

The pilot had substantial experience. The NTSB identified him as a 77-year-old private pilot with single- and multi-engine land ratings and an airplane instrument rating. His estimated experience was 1,566 hours total, including about 515 hours in the Beech 35, and 1,447 hours as pilot in command. His most recent flight review had been completed on July 13, 2018, about a month before the accident.

The environmental conditions were not the primary difficulty. The accident occurred during daylight in visual meteorological conditions. The reported weather near Mayport included few clouds at 4,000 feet above ground level, 10 miles of visibility, winds from 140 degrees at 12 knots, and no precipitation. The Bonanza was therefore not dealing with the kind of reduced visibility or severe weather that can complicate an emergency descent. The defining problem was the sudden loss of engine power and the limited distance remaining to land.

The NTSB's final conclusion focused on the maintenance-related failure rather than on the ditching itself. Its probable-cause finding states: The failure of a fuel line due to improper installation of a fuel flow sensor. The Board determined that this failure resulted in fuel starvation and the subsequent total loss of engine power.

The accident illustrates how a relatively small component can become the initiating point for a complete loss of propulsion. The fuel-flow sensor was part of an engine-monitoring installation, but the support and installation of the associated fuel line became critical. Once the line developed a fatigue crack and fractured, the engine could no longer receive fuel normally. The pilot then had only the aircraft's remaining altitude and the surrounding geography to work with.

The final moments were therefore shaped by a narrowing set of options. The engine had stopped producing power, restart attempts had failed, and Mayport was identified as the nearest airport. The pilot reported that he could not make the airport and chose the available landing surface: the Atlantic. The successful rescue and the absence of pilot injury stand in contrast to the substantial aircraft damage documented after recovery.

The accident was investigated as ERA18LA227. The final report was published by the National Transportation Safety Board on May 27, 2021. The report classified the defining event as fuel starvation and recorded the aircraft damage as substantial. It also documented that the NTSB did not travel to the accident scene, while relying on the recovered aircraft, component examination, maintenance records and other investigative material to establish the failure sequence.

Accident Facts

Sources

National Transportation Safety Board, Aviation Investigation Final Report ERA18LA227: https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/98129/pdf

NTSB factual report, ERA18LA227: https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateFactualReport/98129/pdf

NTSB investigation docket: https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket?ProjectID=98129

Aviation Safety Network, 17 August 2018 accident record for N1330Z.

the associated record: “Pilot forced to Ditch in the Atlantic | Navy Helicopter came to Rescue!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ_h0iaWHU