WPR09FA309 · Beech B95
Beech B95 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Holbrook Municipal Airport (P14) to Largo Vista, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09FA309
- 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
- 4 · 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 B95
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 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
- N912T
- Operator
- Tuntland David J
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Holbrook Municipal Airport (P14), Holbrook, AZTo Largo Vista, 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Physical
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After landing, the pilot told witnesses that he vomited en route to the airport. After fueling, he went into the airport lounge, and laid down on a sofa in a fetal position. The witnesses stated that he looked ill, referring to him as clammy or pale. After the passengers returned from lunch, they boarded the airplane. A professional pilot saw the airplane depart in a direction such that the wind varied from a quartering tailwind to a direct crosswind at 5 to 10 knots. The airplane climbed about 300 feet, made a 45-degree right turn, then entered a left turn, and appeared to be returning to runway 21. As the airplane rolled through the extended centerline of the runway, the bank angle increased until the left wingtip was pointed at the ground. The airplane continued to roll until the nose was pointed toward the ground before impact. Examination of the wreckage revealed no mechanical anomalies with the airframe or engine.
It was very likely that the acute gastrointestinal distress the pilot was suffering at the time impaired his ability to successfully fly the airplane. Due to his condition, the pilot likely decided to return to the departure airport, but failed to maintain control of the airplane.
The pilot’s toxicology report revealed distant use of propoxyphene, a pain medication. No personal medical records were found, so it was not possible to determine of the effect of the underlying painful condition. However, the distant use of the medication was unlikely to have impaired the pilot or caused his gastric distress at the time.
Phentermine was also identified in the toxicology report; this medication carries an FDA warning “may impair the ability of the patient to engage in potentially hazardous activities such as operating machinery or driving a motor vehicle.” The use of phentermine may have further impaired the pilot’s ability to safely fly the airplane, and may have played a role in his willingness to attempt a flight while suffering from nausea and vomiting.
Probable cause
The pilot’s decision to depart when ill and his failure to maintain control of the airplane during a return to the airport, likely because of his physical illness and drug impairment.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09FA309
- Event ID
- 20090624X10624
- Case number
- WPR09FA309
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2009-06-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 645485501196be6c1976c23b64344eaa2da0f9ee49aa0a92f0a9b8b1ea1d69aa; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:18:10.887Z.