Martinaire Mitsubishi MU-2B-35 accident
Mitsubishi MU-2B-35 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW86MA097
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Mitsubishi MU-2B-35
- Aircraft type
- Mitsubishi MU-2
- 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
- N8CC
- Operator
- Martinaire
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), Austin, TXTo Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), D/FW AIRPORT, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · cruise
- 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 › Emergency procedure, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ABOUT 6 MIN AFTER TAKEOFF, AT 2138:31 CDT, THE PLT RPRTD LEVEL AT 9000 FT MSL. AT 2140:17, HE TRANSMITTED THAT HE HAD TROUBLE & SAID HE COULD NOT CONTROL OR DISCONNECT THE AUTOPILOT (A/P) WHICH WAS CAUSING THE ACFT TO DESCEND. AT 2141:14,HE STATED HE WAS DESCENDING AT 6000 FT/MIN. ANOTHER COMPANY PLT IN ANOTHER ACFT ASKED IF HE COULD FIND THE BREAKER, MEANING THE A/P CIRCUIT BREAKER. AT 2141:27, THE PLT OF N8CC REPLIED, 'CALL YOU BACK.' SECONDS LATER, RADIO & RADAR CONTACT WITH N8CC WERE LOST. A SEARCH WAS INITIATED, BUT THE ACFT WAS NOT FND UNTIL THE FOLLOWING MORNING. AN EXAM REVEALED THE ACFT IMPACTED IN A STEEP, NOSE DOWN, INVERTED ATTITUDE WHILE AT HIGH SPEED; MUCH OF THE WRECKAGE WAS BURIED. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE/MALFUNCTION WAS FND. WITH THE A/P ENGAGED, BACK PRESSURE ON THE CONTROL COLUMN WOULD HAVE CAUSED THE A/P TO TRIM NOSE DOWN. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE MANUFACTURER ISSUED A PRECAUTIONARY ADVISORY TO ALL MU-2 OWNER/OPERATORS REGARDING PROPER OPERATION OF THE A/P AND THE VARIOUS WAYS IN WHICH IT CAN BE DISENGAGED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW86MA097
- Event ID
- 20001213X33895
- Case number
- FTW86MA097
- 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 1986-06-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 81387e8d3190b4def9be7ba650686e5add11066194f3ae799b25294c8d25fb62; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:21:25.361Z.