FTW91LA151 · Beech A23-24
Horizon Aviation Beech A23-24 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH) to Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport (CXO)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW91LA151
- 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
- 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 A23-24
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 23
- 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
- N3673Q
- Operator
- Horizon Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH), Tomball, TXTo Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport (CXO), Conroe, 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)
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CFI AND HIS RATED STUDENT WERE DEPARTING THEIR HOME BASE ON A LOCAL INSTRUMENT TRAINING AND AIRCRAFT FAMILIARIZATION FLIGHT. AFTER LEVELING AT 1500 FEET, THE ENGINE SUDDENLY, AND WITHOUT WARNING, LOST POWER. THE CFI TOOK OVER THE CONTROLS AND PERFORMED THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURES FOR AN ENGINE RESTART, WHILE SEARCHING FOR A SUITABLE FIELD FOR A FORCED LANDING. THE AIRPLANE FLEW UNDER POWER LINES, TOUCHED DOWN ON A BUSY HIGHWAY, WENT THROUGH A BARBED WIRE FENCE, COLLIDED WITH A DITCH, AND CAME TO REST IN AN OPEN PASTURE. ON SITE INVESTIGATION AND A LIMITED TEARDOWN INSPECTION OF THE ENGINE CONFIRMED THAT THE LOSS OF POWER WAS NOT DUE TO INTERNAL FAILURE OF THE ENGINE. THE NATURE OR CAUSE OF THE POWER LOSS COULD NOT BE DETERMINED OR DUPLICATED.
Probable cause
THE TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE UNSUITABLE TERRAIN AT THE PILOT'S DISPOSAL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW91LA151
- Event ID
- 20001212X17872
- Case number
- FTW91LA151
- 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: 21a88f5d1c73097228f835fe087b7997662fa296914535442a454ff2c8b05a47; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:28:18.869Z.