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CHI06FA264 · Beech BE-95-B55

22 Sept 2006 · N. Sioux City, SD, United States

Beech BE-95-B55 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route

From North Platte Regional Airport Lee Bird Field (LBF) to LSA · La Crosse, WI

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Event

NTSB case
CHI06FA264
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 BE-95-B55

Aircraft type
Beechcraft BE-95
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
N4JV
Operator
Michael F. Wille · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From North Platte Regional Airport Lee Bird Field (LBF), North Platte, NETo LSA · La Crosse, WI
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
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/spin
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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent

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 was in cruise flight at 9,000 feet above mean sea level (msl) when it entered a descending left turn. The altitude data went into coast mode with the groundspeed being reported as 204 knots. Four seconds later, radar data shows the airplane turning to the right with a ground speed of 50 knots at an altitude of 7,400 feet. The airplane then enters another descending left turn. Radar data then shows the airplane at 5,200 feet with a ground speed of 29 knots. The altitude data then once again entered the coast mode. Witnesses reported seeing the airplane spinning as it descended out of the clouds. The airplane impacted the terrain in a relatively flat attitude. Post accident examination of the airframe, engines, and associated systems and components failed to reveal any preimpact failure/malfunction. Weather conditions at the time of the accident consisted of instrument meteorological conditions with rain. A weather study showed the airplane was operating in an area of instrument meteorological conditions with rain showers, and turbulence.

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during cruise flight, and subsequent inadvertent flat spin from which he could not recover. Contributing to the accident were clouds, turbulence, and rain showers.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI06FA264
Event ID
20060927X01409
Case number
CHI06FA264
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: 99bb4b47fa74719a777fce9dd38f485bbc44051e4a533310ba527ff92bcf7f2b; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:02:47.843Z.