NYC06FA048 · Beech D55
Beech D55 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport (UMP) to Dawson Municipal Airport (16J)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC06FA048
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech D55
- 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
- N8165W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport (UMP), Indianapolis, INTo Dawson Municipal Airport (16J), Dawson, GA
- 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
- Approach · circling (IFR)
- 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
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Airspeed(vs), 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 pilot and four passengers departed with full fuel on an IFR cross-country flight. Approximately 3 hours after departure, the pilot initiated an instrument approach at an airport where he planned to refuel. Due to low cloud ceilings, the pilot was unable to land, and flew to an alternate airport. He attempted another instrument approach, and when he again could not land, he informed ATC that the airplane was "running out of fuel," and he needed to be vectored to the closest airport. The pilot attempted another instrument approach at the third airport; however, the pilot-rated passenger reported the cloud layer was approximately 100 feet, and they could not visually obtain the runway environment. Witnesses observed the airplane circle the runway three times, before the nose suddenly dropped straight down, and impacted the ground. Examination of the airplane revealed approximately 4 gallons of fuel remained in the fuel tanks following the accident, and no mechanical anomalies were noted. At the time of the accident, the airplane had been flying for a little over four hours. According to the Beechcraft Baron Pilot's Operating Handbook, each engine burned approximately 12-13 gallons of fuel per hour, and the endurance for the airplane was approximately 4.5 hours. A review of flight service station data revealed that the pilot obtained a weather briefing prior to departing, which indicated deteriorating weather conditions for the estimated time of arrival, but did not obtain any further updates while en route. The pilot-rated passenger stated that the engines continued to operate until impact.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain sufficient airspeed to preclude a stall, which resulted in an inadvertent stall and loss of control while circling to land. Factors associated with the accident were the pilot's inadequate in-flight planning and weather evaluation, low clouds, a low fuel condition, and an inadvertent stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC06FA048
- Event ID
- 20060109X00030
- Case number
- NYC06FA048
- 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: 16c2c8ec46ad096931a8d4788ec529d12c237db40fdd23390482a5c5ddf76613; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:38:57.123Z.