FTW90FA176 · Beech 36
Beech 36 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From San Antonio International Airport (SAT) to FRD · Frederick, OK
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW90FA176
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech 36
- 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
- N169DD
- Operator
- Lynn L. Dunham · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Antonio International Airport (SAT), San Antonio, TXTo FRD · Frederick, OK
- 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 · descent
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AT 1444 THE PILOT REQUESTED A DEVIATION FOR WEATHER. AT 1510 THE PILOT ACKNOWLEDGED A REQUESTED CLEARANCE TO DESCEND FROM 10,000 TO 6,000 FEET. THERE WERE NO ADDITIONAL TRANSMISSIONS RECEIVED. THE AIRPLANE DESCENDED ON A SOUTHERLY TRACK AT AN AVERAGE AND MAXIMUM RATE OF DESCENT OF 5,137 AND 8,250 FPM RESPECTIVELY. GROUND SPEED AVERAGED 160 MPH. IMPACT OCCURRED IN A WINGS LEVEL ATTITUDE ABOUT 20 DEG NOSE LOW. THERE WERE THUNDERSTORMS IN THE AREA WITH LIGHTNING, HEAVY RAIN, HIGH WINDS, AND CLOUD TOPS TO 45,000 FEET. NUMEROUS BOTTLES OF INSULIN, SYRINGES WITH NEEDLES, AND A DIABETIC TEST KIT WERE FOUND IN THE PILOT'S BAGGAGE. THE COPILOT'S TOXICOLOGY EXAM REVEALED SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF PHENOBARBITAL, A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE. THE COPILOT WAS NOT INSTRUMENT RATED. AUTOPSIES OF BOTH PILOTS IDENTIFIED A LACK OF HAND OR FEET INJURIES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND FAILED TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE WHILE FLYING IN SEVERE WEATHER AND INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS WERE A FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW90FA176
- Event ID
- 20001212X24265
- Case number
- FTW90FA176
- 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: a0d88ab49fade4c17f69b7127f8c277d0ebfbc3ca44bf034cfcb75559a82877f; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:15:15.322Z.