DEN91FA005 · Beech P35
Beech P35 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM) to Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN91FA005
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech P35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N1568S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM), Fort Smith, ARTo Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC), BROOMFIED, CO
- 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 · circling (IFR)
- 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
- 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 › Stall, inadvertent
- Weather condition › Icing conditions
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OBTAINED TWO WEATHER BRIEFING THAT INCLUDED FORECAST ICING CONDITIONS. THE FLIGHT PROCEEDED UNEVENTFULLY UNTIL IT ARRIVED IN THE VICINITY OF THE KIOWA VORTAC, NEAR DENVER. APPROACH CONTROL ADVISED THE PILOT OF TWO PIREPS: LIGHT TO MODERATE RIME ICING, AND MODERATE TO SEVERE RIME ICING, REPORTED BY SEVERAL AIRCRAFT. THE PILOT ELECTED TO CONTINUE. THE PILOT REPORTED ACCUMULATING ICE SHORTLY THEREAFTER, AND REQUESTED AN ILS APPROACH TO DENVER'S STAPLETON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. WHILE BEING VECTORED, THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN SEVERAL ASSIGNED ALTITUDES. HE WAS VECTORED TOWARDS BUCKLEY ANG BASE, BUT CRASHED ABOUT ONE MILE SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. THE SHERIFF REPORTED AT LEAST TWO INCHES OF RIME ICE ON THE LEADING EDGES OF THE WINGS. RUDDERVATOR, AND ANTENNAE. THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT CERTIFIED FOR FLIGHT INTO ICING CONDITIONS, NOR WAS IT EQUIPPED WITH ANY DEICING EQUIPMENT.
Probable cause
INADVERTENT STALL. FACTORS WERE HIS DECISION TO DISREGARD IN-FLIGHT WEATHER ADVISORIES, CONTINUED FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER, AND ICING CONDITIONS AND THE FLIGHT INTO THE KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN91FA005
- Event ID
- 20001212X24446
- Case number
- DEN91FA005
- 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 1990-10-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5327ef494d24d849cf033f8def466737f5c6e34843137c0f54b271fcf53d84cf; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:34:36.318Z.