FTW96FA120 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: loss of control in flight during an emergency descent
From San Antonio International Airport (SAT) to West Houston Airport (IWS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96FA120
- 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
- 1 · 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 A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N2TC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Antonio International Airport (SAT), San Antonio, TXTo West Houston Airport (IWS), Houston, 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 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
- Emergency descent
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, uncontrolled
- Pilot in command › Incapacitation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After 35 minutes of uneventful flight at 5,500 feet MSL, the pilot contacted ATC to request a lower altitude due to 'not feeling very well.' During the next 45 minutes of flight inbound to his destination airport, he relayed to ATC controllers that he was feeling progressively worse. About 9 miles west of his destination, his radio transmissions were becoming increasingly labored, and he stated that he was 'in bad shape' and was experiencing 'blurred vision.' Subsequent to radar contact being lost, a pilot from another airplane witnessed the aircraft 'swerving back and forth very low to the ground.' He reported that the aircraft impacted the ground 'at cruise speed or faster.' Autopsy findings did not reveal evidence of a cardiac event. Toxicology tests for alcohol and carbon monoxide were negative. An inspection of the aircraft's heater and muffler systems did not reveal any defects. No hazardous or toxic materials were found within the wreckage. The cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma to the head and chest. The pilot was not wearing a shoulder harness (not installed). After impact damage, there was occupiable volume within the forward cabin structure.
Probable cause
a loss of control due to pilot incapacitation for undetermined reasons. A factor related to the pilot's injuries was the lack of shoulder harness restraint.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96FA120
- Event ID
- 20001208X05239
- Case number
- FTW96FA120
- 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: 2c8ee79ecc73f96ff323c7b23499864d198a3f3fe35187fd334910246b9abecf; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:25:22.719Z.