FTW00FA072 · Beech 95-B55
Beech 95-B55 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From BSM · Austin, TX to LXY
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW00FA072
- 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
- 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
- N3MT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From BSM · Austin, TXTo LXY
- 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
- 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 control in flight
- 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/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, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot radioed to the fixed base operator (FBO) stating that he didn't have a green landing gear light; however, the mechanical indicator was showing the nose gear in the extended position. The pilot elected to fly the twin-engine airplane over the runway, past the FBO, so that two pilot-rated witnesses could check the landing gear. The witnesses stated that the airplane flew by at a 'very slow airspeed,' and the landing gear appeared to be in the extended position. The witnesses added that they observed the airplane initiate a climb and gradual turn to the left. They stated that they heard a 'small amount of power being added to the engines, but not full power.' Both witnesses stated that the 'engines sounded good and the airplane appeared to be under control.' Other witnesses, located south of the accident site, stated that they observed the airplane climbing and then turning to the left. The airplane was described as making a steep turn to the left followed by it spinning to the ground. The airplane had vortex generators, which lower the airplane's stall speed, installed 9 days prior to the accident. The pilot's flight instructor stated that the pilot 'had not practiced stalls recently,' and had not practiced stalls in the airplane since the vortex generators were installed. He added that the pilot never practiced full stalls in the airplane. No pre-accident anomalies were noted during examination of the airplane and engines. The landing gear actuator was found in the extended position.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airspeed while maneuvering in the traffic pattern, which resulted in a stall/spin. Factors were the partial failure of the landing gear indication system and the pilot's diverted attention.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW00FA072
- Event ID
- 20001212X20357
- Case number
- FTW00FA072
- 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: 8776f13c535cf7fe773b21dfae215fcef6015bb898d252e6fc3926da5bd7e701; retrieved 2026-09-20T21:29:29.825Z.