DEN86FA023 · Beech A45
Civil Air Patrol Beech A45 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN86FA023
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Beech A45
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 45
- 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
- N422NM
- Operator
- Civil Air Patrol
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), KIRKLAND AFB, NMTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, improper
- Propeller system/accessories › Vibration
- Propeller system/accessories, pitch change mech › Failure, partial
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Albuquerque, NM, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
WHILE MANEUVERING TO ENTER TRAFFIC AT ALAMEDA ARPT, THE PLT EXPERIENCED SEVERE ACFT VIBRATIONS. HE ATTEMPTED BUT WAS NOT ABLE TO REACH THE ARPT DUE TO RAPID LOSS OF AIRSPEED ANDALTITUDE. THE ACFT CRASHED 1/2 MILE FROM THE LANDING RWY. THE ONE PAX AND A WITNESS INDICATED THAT THE ACFT STALLED 20-30 FT AGL. THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED A FRACTURED PROPELLERPITCH ACTUATING PIN WHICH WAS CAUSED BY A RECENT IMPROPER OVERHAUL. THE HOLE IN WHICH THE PIN WAS INSTALLED WAS IMPROPERLY DRILLED, ALLOWING THE PIN TO BOTTOM OUT BEFORE TORQUE COULD BE APPLIED TO THE SHAFT. EXAMINATION OF THE FRACTURED SURFACES BY METALLURGIAL LABORATORY ANALYSIS REVEALED A PROGRESSIVE TYPE OF FAILURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN86FA023
- Event ID
- 20001214X38215
- Case number
- DEN86FA023
- 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: aee9b3b5a5e4d4c7568c61ec3c42e8d9250bf813847273691e79492cb8777571; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:06:24.566Z.