FTW85FA055 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during an uncontrolled descent
From F18 · Cleburne, TX to Nashville International Airport (BNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85FA055
- 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
- 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 A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N22PF
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From F18 · Cleburne, TXTo Nashville International Airport (BNA), Nashville, TN
- 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
- Uncontrolled descent
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Autopilot/flight director, transmitter(autopilot) › Improper
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Descent, not corrected
- Pilot in command › Incapacitation(other organic problem)
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Pull-up, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT WAS SEEN BY WITNESSES IN A DIVE FROM APRX 1000 FT AGL. IT APPEARED TO NOT CHANGE ATTITUDE NOR WAIVER AS IT CONTINUED TOWARD THE GRND. IMPACT WITH THE GRND OCCURRED WITH THE WINGS LEVEL IN APRX 15 DEG DIVE ON A HDG OF 118 DEGREES. A MARK ON THE A/S INDICATOR INDICATED 194 KTS IAS AT IMPACT. INVEST AFTER THE ACCIDENT REVEALED NO FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION IN EQUIP EXCEPT DIFFICULTIES IN USING ALT MODE OF THE AUTO-PLT. THIS EQUIP WAS NOTED AS UNRELIABLE AND NOT TO BE USED. THRU INTERVIEWS IT WAS DETERMINED THAT THE PLT HAD INJURED HIS LEG 5 DAYS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT WHILE DEPLANING IN OZONA, TX. THE RT SHIN LACERATION WAS ABOUT 3 INCHES LONG REQUIRING SEVERAL SUTURES FOR CLOSING. DURING AUTOPSY THE WOUND WAS FOUND OPEN AND BLOODY BANDAGES FOUND IN THE PLANE WRECKAGE SUGGESTS THAT THE WOUND HAD REOPENED IN FLT. THE ONLY OTHER SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS OF THE AUTOPSY WAS THE ABSENCE OF BROKEN BONES IN THE HANDS & WRISTS. IN DISCUSSIONS WITH THE PLTS WIFE SHE SAID THAT SHE OBSERVED THE BANDAGED AREA BEFORE THE FLT AS BEING CLEAN & NOT BLOODY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85FA055
- Event ID
- 20001214X41571
- Case number
- FTW85FA055
- 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: f722d9dabcc0675b1b536518135f8f7f36714fdb27d0e833ee2d44430e698da5; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:14:32.928Z.