Eagle Airways Beech C-45H accident
Beech C-45H · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From Pine Bluff Regional Airport, Grider Field (PBF) to Laredo International Airport (LRD)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW93FA117
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 C-45H
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft C-45
- 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
- N492DM
- Operator
- Eagle Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pine Bluff Regional Airport, Grider Field (PBF), Pine Bluff, ARTo Laredo International Airport (LRD), Laredo, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Wire, transmission; Utility pole; 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
RADAR DATA SHOWED THE AIRPLANE TRACKING NORTH OF THE PLANNED ROUTE. IT MADE SEVERAL HEADING CHANGES, AND DESCENDED TO 500 FT MSL. THE PILOT ADVISED ATC THAT HE WAS LANDING AT SHREVEPORT, AND WAS ASSIGNED A TRANSPONDER CODE. NO FURTHER TRANSMISSIONS WERE RECEIVED BY ATC. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED TRANSMISSION LINES, POLES, AND TREES APPROX 19 MI NW OF THE AIRPORT. EXAMINATION OF THE PROPELLERS REVEALED THAT THE RIGHT SPINNER DOME MARKS EQUATED TO 74 DEG; THE OPERATING RANGE IS 17-35 DEG. THE 3 BLADES OF THE LEFT PROPELLER SHOWED ONLY LEADING EDGE DAMAGE AT THE TIPS. EXAMINATION OF THE RIGHT ENGINE REVEALED THE FOLLOWING: CARBON BUILDUP IN THE EXHAUST AND INTAKE MANIFOLDS, EXHAUST VALVES PITTED AND SCORED, VALVE SEATS WORN AND PITTED, SPARK PLUGS WORN, COMPRESSION BELOW 60 ON 4 CYLINDERS, AND A SEPARATED MAGNETO BLOCK WITH PITTING AND FRETTING. TIME SINCE LAST ANNUAL INSPECTION BY OPERATOR MAINTENANCE PERSSONNEL WAS 78 HRS. THE LEFT ENGINE AND ACCESSORIES WERE EXTENSIVELY DAMAGED BY FIRE.
Probable cause
A TOTAL LOSS OF RIGHT ENGINE POWER, AND A PARTIAL LOSS OF LEFT ENGINE POWER, FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW93FA117
- Event ID
- 20001211X12125
- Case number
- FTW93FA117
- 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: 10346973f23a300e5166be6aafda4fa113865c1378d32a06b63611740d63c5e8; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:52:39.282Z.