FTW98FA056 · Beech 95-B55
Beech 95-B55 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM) to Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (FTW)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW98FA056
- 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 95-B55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 55
- 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
- N6835Q
- Operator
- Jerry L. Davis · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM), Birmingham, ALTo Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (FTW), Fort Worth, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel starvation; Stall/spin
- 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 › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Impairment(drugs)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses observed the twin engine airplane in a 'slightly nose-down flat spin.' Other witnesses reported that a 'sputter or cough' and a 'faint stall-out' directed their attention to the 'spiraling' airplane. Ground signatures and wreckage distribution were consistent with a vertical impact in a flat attitude. The main fuel tanks were topped off with 70.2 gallons of fuel for the 534 nm cross country flight. The amount of fuel in the auxiliary fuel tanks at time of departure could not be determined. Both fuel selectors were found between the AUX and OFF positions. No anomalies were noted during the engine runs of both engines, and control continuity was established to all flight controls. Toxicology findings were positive for methamphetamine, amphetamine, chlorpheniramine, phenylpropanolamine, ephedrine, and salicylate. In the opinion of Dr. Canfield, Civil Aeromedical Institute (CAMI), the levels of both methamphetamine and amphetamine detected in the pilot and passenger were very high and would have caused impairment in performance in the cockpit.
Probable cause
The pilot's impairment due to drugs, and his ensuing failure to maintain minimum required airspeed for flight, which resulted in a stall/spin. A factors was the loss of power to both engines due to fuel starvation as a result of the pilot's improper use of the fuel selector.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW98FA056
- Event ID
- 20001208X09167
- Case number
- FTW98FA056
- 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: 8a04a5e421e0d7153961a08a9235da082f7dfc2bdfb0f573729e3e3d7ba038b6; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:45:18.737Z.