Martinaire Cessna 208B accident
Cessna 208B · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB) to Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95FA094
- 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
- 0 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 208B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 208
- 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
- N9461R
- Operator
- Martinaire
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport (LBB), TXTo Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF), Midland, TX
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Ice/frost removal from aircraft, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Lubbock, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE NIGHT BEFORE THE ACCIDENT, FREEZING RAIN FOLLOWED LATER BY SNOW, FELL ON THE RAMP WHERE THE AIRPLANE WAS PARKED. A WITNESS REPORTED THAT WHILE ASSISTING THE PILOT IN REMOVING SNOW FROM THE AIRPLANE, HE NOTED THAT 80% OF THE WING WAS COVERED WITH A COARSE LAYER OF ICE, FROM 1/16 TO 3/16 IN THICKNESS, THAT WAS NOT REMOVED BEFORE FLIGHT. AFTER THE ACCIDENT, A FIREMAN FROM THE CITY OF LUBBOCK FIRE DEPARTMENT NOTED ICE ON THE WING APPROXIMATELY 1/16TH OF AN INCH THICK THAT HAD A ROUGH TEXTURE THAT LOOKED AS IF DEPOSITED BY FREEZING RAIN. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT SHORTLY AFTER TAKE OFF SHE HEARD A POWER DECREASE AND FELT SURGES IN THE AIRCRAFT. THE PILOT THEN LOOKED FOR A PLACE TO LAND. A DETAILED EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVELED NO MECHANICAL DEFICIENCIES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO REMOVE ICE FROM THE AIRFRAME PRIOR TO TAKEOFF. FACTORS WERE FREEZING RAIN THE NIGHT BEFORE AND THE PILOTS' INCOMPLETE PREFLIGHT INSPECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95FA094
- Event ID
- 20001207X02851
- Case number
- FTW95FA094
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 59ee42a8ae38822a0f2a1815f6ac1c096a0e1ab01085fdd4f3cc3286c415f8b4; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:04:16.492Z.