FTW95FA080 · Beech 65-90
Beech 65-90 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Memorial Field Airport (HOT) to Pueblo Memorial Airport (PUB)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95FA080
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Beech 65-90
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 65
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N101GA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Memorial Field Airport (HOT), Hot Springs, ARTo Pueblo Memorial Airport (PUB), Pueblo, CO
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Airframe, component or system failure
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Descent, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › Diverted attention
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OBTAINED A WEATHER BRIEFING, FILED AN IFR FLIGHT PLAN, AND TOOK OFF AT NIGHT ON A FLIGHT FROM HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS, TO PUEBLO, COLORADO. ABOUT ONE MINUTE LATER, HE ADVISED AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL THAT HE NEEDED TO RETURN TO HOT SPRINGS. HE THEN CONTACTED THE AIRPLANE OPERATOR AND SAID THE HEATER WAS NOT WORKING. THE OPERATOR SUGGESTED THAT HE RETURN FOR REPAIRS. THE PILOT WAS THEN HEARD TO SAY, 'OH, SHOOT!' NO FURTHER RADIO TRANSMISSIONS WERE RECEIVED FROM THE FLIGHT. THE AIRPLANE CUT A 400 FOOT SWATH THROUGH TREES, AND THE WRECKAGE PATH MEASURED 940 FEET. WITH EXCEPTION OF A HEATER PROBLEM, NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURE WAS EVIDENT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT INADVERTENTLY ALLOWED THE AIRPLANE TO DESCEND AND COLLIDE WITH TREES, AFTER HE BECAME DIVERTED BY AN INOPERATIVE CABIN HEATER. DARKNESS WAS A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95FA080
- Event ID
- 20001207X02847
- Case number
- FTW95FA080
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1995-01-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 604560ec123c4f5b5bd621dcae7a53da0e3440049c188f340330c76230465ae8; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:53:44.328Z.