SEA05FA136

History of flight

On July 1, 2005, about 1855 Pacific daylight time, a Beech E-55 twin-engine airplane, N686T, experienced a loss of power from both engines and ditched in ocean waters near Lopez Island, Washington, about 8 miles southeast of the flight's planned destination of Friday Harbor, Washington. The airplane, which was registered to a private individual and operated by the commercial pilot, was destroyed by impact damage and immersion in salt water. Of the five people aboard, two passengers sustained fatal injuries, the pilot and one passenger sustained serious injuries, and one passenger sustained minor injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the personal cross country flight conducted under 14 CFR Part 91. The flight departed from Redmond, Oregon, about 1713.

In a written statement submitted to the NTSB investigator-in-charge (IIC), the pilot reported that on the afternoon of July 1, 2005, he and one of his passengers (who was a private pilot) pulled the airplane out of its hangar at Roberts Field in Redmond and conducted a pre-flight inspection. He explained that "the way to visually inspect the fuel level on this plane is to check the float gauges on the wing, which for the past eleven years of ownership, [have] been pin-point accurate. The left engine had 45 gallons (3 hours) and the right engine had 55 gallons (3:45 hours), and both engines had 11 qts. of oil. This was a sufficient amount of fuel for an hour and fifty minute flight." The pilot reported that the flight from Redmond to Friday Harbor proceeded uneventfully until they were "a few miles north of Seattle airspace." As he was waiting for Whidbey Island Naval Air Station Approach Control to respond to his request for an instrument flight rules (IFR) clearance to descend through an overcast cloud layer, the right engine started "surging." He asked Whidbey Approach to expedite his request, and they cleared him to descend through the cloud layer and gave him a vector to Friday Harbor. The pilot turned the auxiliary fuel pumps on low, and "the engine began to act somewhat normally." After descending through the clouds and with the airport in sight, he cancelled his IFR flight plan and changed to the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) for Friday Harbor. "Soon after," the right engine began surging again. "After several minutes," the left engine started surging. His attempts to remedy the situation were unsuccessful. The pilot stated that "the engines never shut down, but there wasn't sufficient thrust to keep us in the air, and the plane started to lose altitude." He realized they were descending below the elevation of the cliff top on Lopez Island and turned away from the cliff. "Within seconds of turning away from the cliff," the airplane impacted the water and "almost immediately began sinking."

According to information provided by air traffic control personnel, after departing from Redmond, the pilot contacted the Seattle Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) and requested and received visual flight rules (VFR) flight following. As the flight proceeded towards Friday Harbor, Seattle ARTCC handed the flight off to Seattle Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON). The pilot reported no difficulties with the airplane during the time the flight was in contact with Seattle ARTCC and Seattle TRACON. At 1839, Seattle TRACON handed the flight off to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station Approach Control. The pilot made a request to Whidbey Approach for an IFR clearance to Friday Harbor. Whidbey Approach issued an IFR clearance and subsequently pointed out the position of the Friday Harbor Airport to the pilot. At 1849, the pilot acknowledged that he had the airport in sight and cancelled the IFR clearance. Whidbey Approach then cleared the pilot to switch to the CTAF for the airport. During the time the pilot was communicating with Whidbey Approach, he reported having an engine problem, but when queried by the controller prior to the frequency change to CTAF, he reported the flight did not require any assistance. Whidbey approach did not receive any distress calls from the airplane; however, the pilot of another airplane reported to the controller that he had witnessed the airplane impact the water near the south end of Lopez Island.

According to information provided by the San Juan County Sheriff's Office, about 1855, emergency operators in Friday Harbor received multiple reports of the airplane "crash landing" in the waters just south of Lopez Island in an area known as Davis Bay. When emergency responders arrived on the scene, the airplane was completely submerged, and they found four people in the water, one of whom was unresponsive and was pronounced deceased by emergency medical personnel. One of the survivors told the responders that one passenger had not exited the airplane before it sank. About 2100, San Juan County Sheriff's Office divers entered the water and located the airplane approximately 150 feet from shore, at a depth of about 54 feet, latitude 48:26.690 north, and longitude 122:53.414 west.

Personnel information

The pilot, who was seated in the left front seat, held a commercial pilot certificate with airplane single engine land and instrument ratings. Additionally, he was rated as a private pilot in multi-engine land airplanes. He held a first class medical certificate dated September 11, 2003, with the limitation, must wear corrective lenses. The pilot reported that he had accumulated 290 hours total flight time with 4 hours flown in the past 90 days. Additionally, he reported that he had accumulated 150 hours in the Beech E-55 airplane.

The pilot rated passenger, who was seated in the right front seat, held a private pilot certificate with single and multi-engine land airplane ratings and the limitation, night flying prohibited. He held a third class medical certificate dated September 15, 2003, with the limitation, must have available glasses for near vision. On the application for his most recent medical certificate, the passenger reported that he had accumulated 450 hours total flight time with 25 hours flown in the past six months.

Aircraft information

The airplane's total fuel capacity was 172 gallons of which 166 gallons were usable. Each wing contained three fuel cells, an outboard leading edge cell, an inboard leading edge cell, and a wing box section fuel cell. The cells were interconnected to provide 83 gallons usable fuel in each wing. One flush-type filler cap was located in the outboard end of each outboard wing leading edge fuel cell. The Pilot's Operating Handbook for the airplane stated that "fuel quantity is measured by float type transmitter units which transmit the common level indication to a single indicator [on the instrument panel] for each respective wing system." The Handbook also stated that "a visual fuel level sight gage in each wing leading edge, outboard of the engine nacelle, can be used for partial filling or off-loading of fuel. This gage is to be used only when it reads within the calibrated areas." (Examination of the airplane's fuel sight gauges revealed the calibrated area to be between 40 and 60 gallons.)

Work orders documenting the most recent maintenance on the airplane were obtained from the facilities that performed the work. According to records obtained from one maintenance facility, the most recent annual inspection was completed on December 3, 2004, at an hour meter reading of 2,200.0 hours and a total airframe time of 3,753.5 hours. As of that date, the left engine, a Continental IO-520-C(7), S/N 816824-R, and the right engine, a Continental IO-520-C(7), S/N 816825-R, had both accumulated 431.8 hours since major overhaul. During examination of the wreckage, it was noted that the hour meter read 2,218.2 hours, indicating that when the accident occurred, the airplane had been flown 18.2 hours s