FTW91FA088 · Beech A36
Sound-Craft Systems Beech A36 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Memorial Field Airport (HOT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW91FA088
- 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
- 4 · 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
- N324CB
- Operator
- Sound-Craft Systems
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Memorial Field Airport (HOT), Hot Springs, ARTo not recorded
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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 collision with object
- 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, static; Wire, transmission
- 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 › Planned approach, improper
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE MADE ONE PASS OVER THE PRIVATE STRIP WHERE IT WAS TO LAND AND THEN ENTERED WHAT WITNESSES DESCRIBED AS A MODIFIED LEFT TRAFFIC PATTERN. ON EXTENDED BASE, ABOUT 1.5 MILES FROM THE RUNWAY THRESHOLD, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK HIGH TENSION LINES AT ABOUT 100 FEET AGL. AT THE TIME OF THE WIRE STRIKE, THE PILOT WAS FLYING DOWN A RIVER. THE AIRPLANE SUBSEQUENTLY IMPACTED THE GROUND VERTICALLY AND AN INTENSE POST-CRASH FIRE ERUPTED SHORTLY AFTER IMPACT. THERE WERE FOUR AIRPORTS WITHIN A FIVE MILE RADIUS OF THE POWER LINE, AND THE LINES WERE NOT MARKED. THE PILOT WAS FAMILIAR WITH THE LOCAL AREA AND THE LANDING STRIP.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER VISUAL APPROACH, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AN ADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT FOR OBSTRUCTIONS. FACTORS WERE THE UNMARKED POWER LINES
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW91FA088
- Event ID
- 20001212X17257
- Case number
- FTW91FA088
- 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: d2287ae47900f50fc1f299b6d8458a38e11bba924d7802ea93915cdf4d79511f; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:47:27.370Z.