Jim Billingsley Beech D18S accident
Beech D18S · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Austin, TX to Dallas, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82FPA11
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument 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
- N8517Z
- Operator
- Jim Billingsley
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Austin, TXTo Dallas, TX
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Approach · IFR final approach
- 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 object
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A NIGHT, ILS APPROACH, THE PLANE STRUCK A POWERLINE ABOUT TWO MILES SHORT OF THE RUNWAY AFTER THE PILOT WAS PROVIDED A LOW ALTITUDE ALERT. THE LEFT ENGINE LOST POWER AND WAS FEATHERED. THE PILOT FEARED POSSIBLE GEAR DAMAGE AND LEFT IT EXTENDED. UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE, THE PLANE CRASHED BEFORE REACHING THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT REPORTED ICE ACCUMULATING ON HIS WINDSHIELD DURING THE DESCENT, BUT STATED HE COULD SEE QUITE WELL THROUGH THE LEFT QUARTER. HE STATED HE WAS FLYING THE APPROACH WITH A GLIDE SLOPE INDICATION OF ONE DOT HIGH WHEN HE LEVELED OFF WITH AN ALTITUDE INDICATION OF ABOUT 800 FT MSL. BEFORE CRASHING, THE PILOT REPLIED TO AN ATC QUERY THAT HE WAS IN CONTACT WITH THE GROUND, HAD THE RUNWAY IN SIGHT, HAD ICE ON HIS WINDSHIELD, AND HIS GLIDESLOPE WAS NOT WORKING. A CHECK OF THE GLIDE SLOPE RECEIVER REVEALED IT WAS INOPERATIVE WITH A ONE DOT HIGH INDICATION. THE ALTIMETERS WERE CHECKED AND SHOWED ONLY A 70 FT DIFFERENCE. ELEVATION OF THE CRASH SITE WAS 596 FT MSL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82FPA11
- Event ID
- 20020917X02112
- Case number
- FTW82FPA11
- 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 1982-02-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 13f4f4650f1496e9d2c6a2df0dc26b127df688a85840eb53a5f7a51a97feec9d; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:11:50.790Z.