FTW82AA167 · Beech B90
Texas Aero Beech B90 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Laredo International Airport (LRD) to San Antonio International Airport (SAT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW82AA167
- 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
- 7 · 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 B90
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 90
- 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
- N98949
- Operator
- Texas Aero
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Laredo International Airport (LRD), Laredo, TXTo San Antonio International Airport (SAT), San Antonio, 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 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 control in flight
- 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
- Design stress limits of aircraft › Exceeded
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT & 6 PAX WERE RETURNING HOME AFTER FISHING IN MEXICO. AFTER CLRG CUSTOMS AT LAREDO, TX, THEY DEPARTED ON THE NEXT LEG OF THE FLT. THE PLT WAS CLRD TO 11000 FT, BUT GOT OFF COURSE. HE COMMENTED THAT AN INSTRUMENT HAD POPPED, HE THEN REQUESTED 7000 FT, BUT DUE TO OTR TRAFFIC, HIS REQUEST WAS DELAYED. WHILE STILL AT 5000 FT, HE STATED, "HEY, I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TOP OF THIS STUFF." APRX 7 MIN AFTER BEING CLRD TO 7000 FT, CONTROLLERS NOTED THAT THE ACFT BGN DESCENDING. THEY ATMTD TO CALL THE PLT, BUT WERE UNABLE. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE ACFT HAD CRASHED AFTER THE OUTER WING PANELS AND THE EMPENNAGE HAD SEPARATED. THE EXACT SEQUENCE OF THE IN-FLT BREAK-UP WAS NOT DETERMINED. RADAR INFO INDICATED THE ACFT HAD ENTERED SVRL VERT OSCILLATIONS OF SVRL HUNDRED FEET BFR DSCNDG. AN EXAM OF THE FRACTURE SURFACES REVEALED ONLY OVERLOAD FAILURE. OTR PLTS RPRTD CLDS BTN 3000 & 6500 FT WITH ONLY LGT TURBC. THE ACFT WAS ESTIMATED TO BE APRX 65 LBS OVR THE MAX GROSS WT LMT & LOADED NEAR THE AFT CG.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW82AA167
- Event ID
- 20020917X03241
- Case number
- FTW82AA167
- 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: 5075848e5e1e8a1dc27dd7bdfe96d232b03a5da19f6f4381d68c5cfe0000898a; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:26:49.740Z.