FTW04FA044 · Beech H-35
Beech H-35 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From Gundys Airport (O38) to M39 · Mena, AR
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW04FA044
- 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
- 1 · 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 H-35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft H-35
- 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
- N7929D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gundys Airport (O38), Owasso, OKTo M39 · Mena, 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 · descent
- 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 terrain/water
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane collided with terrain, at the 2,061-foot level of the 2,601-foot mountain, while on a visual approach to the airport. The 3,241-hour airline transport rated pilot climbed to an altitude of 5,600 AGL and while in VFR conditions, requested and obtained traffic advisories from ARTCC. Approximately 1228, the pilot initiated a visual approach to M39. The last radar contact was established at 1232, and the pilot was cleared to the UNICOM frequency and requested to squawk 1200. At 1232, the last radar position revealed the airplane was at an altitude of 3,100 AGL, descending at a ground speed of 116 knots. The position of the airplane at that time was 11 nautical miles northeast of M39. A pilot, who was flying into the airport approximately the same time as the accident, stated that the weather was overcast and solid with a low ceiling. While on a VFR approach into the airport, he had to descend below 2,000 feet. Once he descended, there was fog. The pilot flew northeast in order to clear the mountains, and then flew through a valley. He stated that he experienced severe turbulence while flying through the valley. Once the pilot landed, he reported that the ceiling was at 1,500 feet and foggy; however, the weather report indicated clear skies.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain proper altitude and clearance from terrain. Contributing factors were the mountainous terrain, fog, clouds, and turbulence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW04FA044
- Event ID
- 20031219X02071
- Case number
- FTW04FA044
- 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: 18cb37ae904bc6271c456e8f8bd22323a66722e17b73aee920d66b6f8a1840a8; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:42:54.448Z.