FTW84FA086 · Beech D18S
Beech D18S · Accident: airframe, component or system failure
From an unrecorded airport to Torreon
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW84FA086
- 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 D18S
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 18
- 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
- N44609
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Torreon
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT HAD JUST TAKEN OFF AT NIGHT ON A FLT TO MEXICO WHEN HE DECLARED AN INTENT TO RETURN & LAND WITH SOME UNSPECIFIED EMERGENCY. WHILE HE WAS USING HIS RADIO, THE SOUND OF BOTH ENGS, RUNNING AT HI POWER, WAS AUDIBLE. WHEN ASKED IF HE REQUIRED ASSISTANCE, HE GAVE AN AFFIRMATIVE REPLY, BUT WHEN ASKED IF HE REQUIRED A CRASH CREW, HE GAVE A NEGATIVE REPLY. SHORTLY AFTER THAT, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH POWER LINES ABOUT 1 MI FROM THE RWY, THEN IMPACTED THE GROUND & WAS DEMOLISHED BY FIRE. IMPACT WITH THE POWER LINES OCCURRED AT ABOUT 55 FT AGL. A WIRE IMPACT MARK ON THE NOSE DOOR INDICATED THE ACFT WAS IN A VERTICAL BANK WHEN THE COLLISION OCCURRED. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT/MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE; HOWEVER, THERE WAS EXTENSIVE DAMAGE FROM FIRE. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT THE ACFT WAS LOADED BEYOND ITS MAX CERTIFICATED GROSS WT. THE PLT HAD A TEMPORARY U.S. LICENSE BASED ON HIS CANADIAN LICENSE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW84FA086
- Event ID
- 20001214X45288
- Case number
- FTW84FA086
- 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 1983-12-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 601bc5143e3aad83d8952782fb5ba25c4c09b9c60dacbfd3b013d992f9b134e0; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:45:49.433Z.