DFW08FA015 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Tulsa Riverside Airport (RVS) to Sugar Land Regional Airport (SGR)
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW08FA015
- 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
- 5 · 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
- N978TL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tulsa Riverside Airport (RVS), Tulsa, OKTo Sugar Land Regional Airport (SGR), Sugarland, TX
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Wire, static
- 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 › Aircraft control, 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 private pilot borrowed a friend's airplane and topped it off with fuel prior to departing on a cross country flight with four passengers. The pilot also obtained a weather briefing and was aware of the high winds that existed at the airport and that moderate turbulence was forecasted along his route of flight. After he departed, several witnesses reported that the airplane was having difficulty climbing and maintaining control. The airplane collided with a row of unmarked power lines located about 3.4 miles south of the runway; caught on fire, then fell to the ground, and burned. An estimated weight and balance calculation revealed that the airplane was under its published maximum gross weight (3,600 pounds) by approximately 130.5 pounds, and was within the center of gravity limitation for takeoff and slightly aft of the allowable center of gravity limits for landing at the intended destination. Examination of the engine and the airframe revealed that there were no mechanical deficiencies, and damage to the propeller blades was consistent with the propeller rotating under a condition of high power at the time of impact.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane after departure, which resulted in a collision with power lines. A factor was the high winds.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW08FA015
- Event ID
- 20071022X01627
- Case number
- DFW08FA015
- 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: 5371421008708adaf9952ba60100b456a7f63f83650aaa9c66adac6cf732d775; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:11:24.094Z.