FTW01LA057 · Beech BE-58
Beech BE-58 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM) to Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW01LA057
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 BE-58
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft BE-58
- 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
- N448DH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TNTo Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT), Little Rock, AR
- 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
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that during cruise flight, he noticed the right engine cylinder head temperature (CHT) was rising above "350 degrees and the oil temperature [was rising] above the top of the green arc." The pilot reported that he secured the engine and advised air traffic control he needed to land at an alternate airport. The controllers repeatedly advised the pilot of the location and distance to the nearest airport. The pilot reported that he was looking for the airport, and he was not able to control the airplane. The pilot did not locate the airport, and he executed a precautionary landing to a muddy field. Neither propeller was found in the feathered position. FAA inspectors found no anomalies with the flight and engine controls. The right and left engines were test run at 1,500 rpm at the accident site, and subsequently, test run in a test cell at various power settings for 2 hours with no anomalies noted. The CHT gauge was examined by the airframe manufacturer and no anomalies were noted. Continuity was confirmed for the wiring from the right CHT probe to the CHT gauge. Toxicological testing for the pilot indicated 2.296 (ug/ml, ug/g) nefazodone detected in serum. Nefazodone is a prescription antidepressant, often known by the name Serzone. The pilot's medical records indicated the routine use of nefazodone as well as alprazolam, a prescription tranquilizer, and zolpidem, a prescription medication used to treat insomnia. All three medications have potential effects on performance. FAA medical records revealed that the pilot did not report the use of the aforementioned drugs on his most recent medical application. The FAA considers these drugs disqualifying for issuance of a medical certificate.
Probable cause
the pilot's poor inflight planning and decision making which resulted in his executing a precautionary landing in a soft field. A contributing factor was the lack of suitable terrain for the precautionary landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW01LA057
- Event ID
- 20010202X00391
- Case number
- FTW01LA057
- 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, coordinates. 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: 7f91905c46727a701a53f6584841c4c56feeb7c16d65bc06ab19d9ee2ceaea20; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:01:13.558Z.