FTW96TA021 · Beech 95
Beech 95 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Chloride Airport (NM51) to 4AC
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96TA021
- 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
- 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 95
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 95
- 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
- N661T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chloride Airport (NM51), Edgewood, NMTo 4AC
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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 on ground/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CIVIL AIR PATROL (CAP) PILOT ATTEMPTED TO TURN ON THE PILOT-CONTROLLED RUNWAY LIGHTS BUT THEY FAILED TO ILLUMINATE. HE DECIDED TO MAKE AN APPROACH TO SEE IF HE COULD LOCATE THE UNLIT RUNWAY. HE SAID THE RUNWAY WAS IN SIGHT AND IN FRONT OF HIM WHEN HE FLARED FOR LANDING. THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN IN THE MEDIAN BETWEEN THE RUNWAY AND PARALLEL TAXIWAY AND STRUCK A RISE IN THE RUNWAY TURNOFF. THE LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED, AND THE AIRPLANE SKIDDED ACROSS THE TAXIWAY AND COLLIDED WITH A HANGAR. CAP INVESTIGATORS FOUND THE RUNWAY LIGHTS MASTER SWITCH TURNED OFF. THEY REPORTED THE REAR SEAT PASSENGER HAD SEEN SOMETHING RUN ACROSS THE RUNWAY WHEN THE AIRPLANE WAS ON SHORT FINAL. THE PILOT TURNED HIS HEAD LEFT AND REARWARD AND TOLD THE PASSENGER IT WAS PROBABLY A COYOTE. CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM A CAP FLIGHT MADE THE FOLLOWING MORNING AT THE APPROXIMATE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WERE THAT THE RUNWAY WAS CLEARLY VISIBLE THROUGHOUT THEIR APPROACH, BUT FLOODLIGHTS IN THE HANGAR AREA AS WELL AS THOSE FROM A NEARBY BASEBALL FIELD CAUSED THEIR PILOT'S EYES TO ADJUST, AND CONTACT WITH THE LANDING AREA WAS MOMENTARILY LOST.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER INFLIGHT DECISION TO MAKE A LANDING ON AN UNLIT RUNWAY AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE. FACTORS WERE THE INOPERATIVE RUNWAY LIGHTS, BRIGHT LIGHTS FROM SURROUNDING AREAS, AND THE PILOT'S ATTENTION BEING DIVERTED DURING THE LANDING FLARE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96TA021
- Event ID
- 20001207X04713
- Case number
- FTW96TA021
- 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: e838eb270ab08f4924bfdb04ccfabc74faac81b435b36931d2dfe5f103642a63; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:07:10.307Z.