FTW88LA053 · Beech V35B
Beech V35B · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Houston Airpark (21XS) to Draughon Miller Central Texas Regional Airport (TPL)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW88LA053
- 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 V35B
- 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
- N3804X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Houston Airpark (21XS), Big Spring, TXTo Draughon Miller Central Texas Regional Airport (TPL), Temple, 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
- Approach · IFR missed approach
- 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 terrain/water
- 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 › Decision height, not maintained
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Missed approach, delayed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Temple, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE TO AUSTIN, TX, THE PLT CHANGED HIS DESTN TO TEMPLE, TX, DUE TO DETERIORATING WX AT AUSTIN. HOWEVER, THE WX AT TEMPLE WAS ALSO DETERIORATING. WHILE DESCENDING TOWARD TEMPLE, HE WAS ADVISED OF A SPL WX OBSERVATION WHICH RPRTD INDEFINITE CEILING 200', SKY OBSCURED, VIS 1/16 MI WITH FOG, WIND FROM 150 DEG AT 7 KTS. THE PLT ELECTED TO FLY AN ILS RWY 15 APCH WHICH HAD MINIMUMS OF 200' CEILING & 1/2 MI VIS. AT 0847 CST, AS THE PLT WAS BEGINNING THE APCH, ANOTHER WX OBSERVATION WAS TAKEN. IT RPRTD AN INDEFINITE CEILING OF 100', VIS 1/16 MI WITH FOG. ACCORDING TO THE PLT, THE FLT WAS NORMAL UNTIL THE MISSED APCH WAS INITIATED, THEN WAS 'SLOW ON GO, HIT TAIL ON PITCH UP.' AT THAT TIME, THE ACFT CONTACTED THE TERRAIN ABOUT 120' SHORT OF THE RWY, DAMAGING THE TAIL CONE & AFT FUSELAGE, BUT THE ACFT CONTD FLYING. THE PLT THEN DIVERTED & LANDED WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT AT BROWNWOOD, TX, WHERE VFR CONDS PREVAILED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT FAILED TO EXECUTE A MISSED APPROACH WHEN HE DESCENDED THROUGH DECISION HEIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW88LA053
- Event ID
- 20001213X24906
- Case number
- FTW88LA053
- 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: a4e9c48d528b9d516231f650d04d322cc1268e5fb9d19a88471fb8ecdea99868; retrieved 2026-09-23T11:13:40.473Z.