LAX90FA008 · Beech F33A
Airline Training Center Beech F33A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90FA008
- 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
- 3 · 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 F33A
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 33
- 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
- N67536
- Operator
- Airline Training Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR)To not recorded
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Propeller system/accessories, blade › Fatigue
- Propeller system/accessories, blade › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE TAKEOFF INITIAL CLIMB, ONE PROPELLER BLADE SEPARATED AND THE RESULTING IMBALANCE CAUSED THE REMAINING PROPELLER BLADE AND HUB TO SEPARATE. WITNESSES SAW THE AIRCRAFT PITCH UP, THEN ENTER A RIGHT TURN, IN AN APPARENT MANEUVER TO RETURN TO THE RUNWAY. WITNESSES SAW THE AIRCRAFT BANK ANGLE CONTINUE TO STEEPEN UNTIL THE AIRCRAFT ROLLED OVER AND ENTERED A SPIN. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION OF THE FAILED BLADE REVEALED THAT IT SEPARATED DUE TO A FATIGUE FRACTURE IN THE FIRST FULL THREAD OF THE THREADED SHANK PORTION, WHICH FITTED INSIDE A FERRULED FITTING. EXTENSIVE METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION OF THE FRACTURE FAILED TO IDENTIFY THE INITIATING DEFECT IN THE FATIGUE FRACTURE. ON SITE EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE WINDSHIELD WAS HEAVILY COATED WITH ENGINE OIL.
Probable cause
THE INFLIGHT SEPARATION OF ONE PROPELLER BLADE DUE TO A FATIGUE FRACTURE OF UNDETERMINED ORIGIN, AND FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT DURING AN ATTEMPT TO RETURN TO THE RUNWAY. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE OIL COVERED WINDSHEILD, WHICH HINDERED THE PILOT IN MAINTAINING OUTSIDE VISUAL REFERENCES DURING A LOW ALTITUDE MANEUVER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90FA008
- Event ID
- 20001213X29625
- Case number
- LAX90FA008
- 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: 2405e0908edb174329079ac3a9be747c9310e227f74039f9fbf46b8a158d863c; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:07:07.428Z.