FTW03FA048 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From St George Regional Airport (SGU) to U77 · Spanish Fork, UT
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW03FA048
- 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 A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N367T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From St George Regional Airport (SGU), St. George, UTTo U77 · Spanish Fork, UT
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 450-hour non-instrument rated private pilot collided with a mountain during a cross country flight in instrument meteorological conditions. Prior to departure, the pilot received a weather briefing from a flight service station and was advised that visual flight was not recommended. The pilot elected to depart and received another weather briefing while en route. The pilot was again advised that visual flight was not recommended due to mountain obscuration and icing. Approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes into the flight, several witnesses heard the airplane (with the engine running) flying low toward a mountain followed by the sound of an explosion. One witness reported that it was snowing and the visibility was approximately 150 feet. Another witness reported the weather as a mixture of rain, sleet, and snow falling at the time of the accident. The airplane collided with mountainous terrain approximately 10 miles southwest of the destination airport at an elevation of 5,273 feet. Examination of the airplane revealed the landing gear was extended and the flaps were retracted. No mechanical deficiencies were noted with the airplane or the engine. The pilot, who was reported to be a physician, tested positive for several prescription narcotic painkillers, an over-the-counter pain releiver/fever reducer, and two over-the-counter antihistamines.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate inflight planning/decision to continue flight from visual to instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in his failure to maintain clearance from terrain while in cruise flight. A low ceiling, obscuration, mountainous terrain and impairing drugs in the pilot's system were factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW03FA048
- Event ID
- 20021202X05541
- Case number
- FTW03FA048
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2002-11-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 63bbc846fb156f738fe98df272903f9d61b563487dd51c9dcb94e167d456cf95; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:38:13.961Z.