Dewey Towner Aero Commander 500-B accident
Aero Commander 500-B · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From an unrecorded airport to Hastings Municipal Airport (HSI)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI93LA041
- 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
Aero Commander 500-B
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 500
- 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
- N777CM
- Operator
- Dewey Towner
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Hastings Municipal Airport (HSI), Hastings, NE
- 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
- En route · climb to 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, attempted
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE CRASHED ON AIRPORT PROPERTY AFTER REPORTING THE AIRPORT IN SIGHT DURING A NIGHT IFR APPROACH. THE PILOT REPORTED THE WEATHER AT THE TIME OF DEPARTURE WAS 500 FEET OVERCAST WITH VISIBILITY RESTRICTED TO 1.5 MILES IN FREEZING DRIZZLE. THE PILOT REPORTED HE WAS UNABLE TO REACH HIS ASSIGNED ALTITUDE OF 9000 FEET BECAUSE OF STRUCTURAL ICING. HE ALSO REPORTED AN UNCOMMANDED DECREASE IN RPM IN THE LEFT ENGINE DURING THE EN ROUTE CLIMB. HE REPORTED TO ATC HE COULD NOT MAINTAIN ALTITUDE AND REQUESTED AN 'IMMEDIATE' RETURN TO HIS DEPARTURE AIRPORT. THE PILOT REPORTED THE AIRPLANE STALLED AS HE WAS TURNING FROM LEFT BASE TO FINAL FOR THE LANDING RUNWAY. HE RECOVERED FROM THE STALL AND DECIDED TO 'PLACE' THE AIRCRAFT IN A FIELD. THE PILOT REPORTED ANOTHER STALL, 'A FEW FEET ABOVE THE GROUND AND CRASHED.' A POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION REVEALED ICE BUILDUPS ON THE LEADING EDGE OF ALL AIRFOIL SURFACES AND THE UNDERSIDE OF THE WINGS. NO MECHANICAL DEFECTS WERE DISCOVERED IN THE LEFT ENGINE OR PROPELLER SYSTEM.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER DECISION TO DEPART IN KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS. THE ICING CONDITIONS AND STRUCTURAL ICE WERE FACTORS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI93LA041
- Event ID
- 20001211X16022
- Case number
- CHI93LA041
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-11-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a2be07cfdab1de21037492c7af504ebe8160430b9043864b4a92014a35cc0530; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:42:45.383Z.