FTW02FA004 · Beech 95-B55
Alamo Aviation Beech 95-B55 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Arlington Municipal Airport (GKY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW02FA004
- 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
- 2 · 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 95-B55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 55
- 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
- N8164R
- Operator
- Alamo Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Arlington Municipal Airport (GKY), Arlington, TXTo 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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/spin
- 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
- Flightcrew › Stall/spin, inadvertent
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While maneuvering during a local instructional flight, the multiengine airplane entered a flat spin that resulted in an in-flight collision with the terrain. A witness, who holds a private pilot certificate, observed the airplane approximately 1,500 feet agl in a "flat spin," and the airplane impacted the ground "flat on its bottom" in a pasture, approximately 400 yards north of the witness. Another witness reported that the airplane was in a flat spin and could not recover. The private pilot with a multiengine rating occupied the left seat, and the multiengine flight instructor occupied the right seat. At the accident site, the landing gear actuator was found in the extended position, and the flap actuators were found in the 10 degree flap position. Examination of the right propeller revealed that the blade counterweight signature markings on the blade sockets indicated that the propeller was in the feathered position at impact. Examination of the right propeller unfeathering accumulator revealed the presence of three separate cracks at the transition between the circumferential stiffener and the thin-walled hemisphere of the diaphragm. The private pilot's toxicological tests indicated that 0.462 (ug/ml, ug/g) of Citalopram (also known by the trade name Celexa), 0.114 (ug/ml, ug/g) of N-desmethylcitapram, 0.024 (ug/ml, ug/g) of di-N-desmethylcitalopram, 0.194 (ug/ml, ug/g) of Diphenhydramine (commonly known by the trade name Benadryl) was detected in the blood and urine, and 17.406 (ug/ml, ug/g) acetaminophen was detected in the urine. Citalopram is a prescription antidepressant, N-desmethylcitapram and di-N-desmethylcitalopram are metabolites of citalopram, and diphenhydramine is an over-the counter antihistamine with sedative effects, often used to treat allergy symptoms. Diphenhydramine was detected in the private pilot's blood in levels consistent with the recent ingestion of several times a normal dose, and the pilot was likely impaired by the effects of diphenhydramine.
Probable cause
The inadvertent flat spin of the airplane by the flightcrew resulting from the flight instructor's inadequate supervision. A contributing factor was the impairment (drugs) of the private pilot.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW02FA004
- Event ID
- 20011011X02070
- Case number
- FTW02FA004
- 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: 047ef22e00309b212cd0dd35c60ae6c23cf294616419b200cd01028d66b23385; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:20:17.014Z.