LAX05FA167 · Beech 95-B55
Beech 95-B55 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Truckee Tahoe Airport (TRK) to U42 · Salt Lake City, UT
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05FA167
- 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
- N8771R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Truckee Tahoe Airport (TRK), Truckee, CATo U42 · Salt Lake City, 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- 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 airplane collided with mountainous terrain at the 10,500-foot level while in cruise. The pilot was receiving VFR flight advisories when radar and radio contact were lost. According to a pilot flying in the area, about 1416, nearby air traffic control tower personnel contacted him, and requested he investigate an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) signal in the area. The pilot noted low clouds with bases between 8,500 to 9,000 feet msl were in the area of the strongest ELT signal reception, and that there was no rain or snow showers in the area. The mountain tops were obscured, but there were good VFR conditions under the clouds. He was not able to locate the wreckage on his first attempt due to the clouds, but did on his second try later in the afternoon. The accident site was on a 45-degree, snow-covered slope. Recorded radar data for the last 2 minutes of the flight showed that the airplane's mode C altitudes varied between 10,000 feet and 10,300 feet. The terrain elevation in the area ranged from 6,750 feet to 10,500 feet msl. The last recorded radar return was at 1416:44, at a mode C reported altitude of 10,300 feet. Weather analysis indicated that the pilot was likely in visual meteorological conditions until just prior to the accident. An overcast cloud band was on the windward side of a mountain range at the accident time, and that terrain was mostly obscured above 8,500-9,000 feet msl. Cloud tops were about 13,000 feet msl. Scattered light snow showers were likely in the accident area. The examination of the airplane and both engine's revealed no preimpact anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's continued VFR cruise flight into instrument meteorological conditions in mountainous terrain, and his failure to maintain clearance from terrain. A contributing factor was mountain obscuration and clouds.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05FA167
- Event ID
- 20050610X00749
- Case number
- LAX05FA167
- 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: d9a57455b86d2957cdb9762e517703b46824af2579a9fc9fe72e29fb07520d97; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:03:33.532Z.