CEN09FA405 · Beech C35
Beech C35 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From South Texas International at Edinburg Airport (EBG) to Weslaco, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN09FA405
- 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 C35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N2043D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From South Texas International at Edinburg Airport (EBG), Edinburg, TXTo Weslaco, 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
- Aircraft › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Both main tanks and the left tip tank were filled with fuel prior to departure. When attempting to fuel the right tip tank, the fuel nozzle broke loose and fell into the tip tank. The pilot was unable to retrieve the broken nozzle, and no fuel was added to the tip tank, therefore the aircraft took off with a fuel imbalance between the tanks. The pilot occupied the right seat and another occupant who poissessed a student pilot certificate occupied the left seat. The supplemental type certificate (STC) directive regarding tip tank balance had not been complied with. During flight, the fuel imbalance resulted in a left rolling tendency. The pilot attempted to land at the nearest airfield, and configured the airplane with 10 degrees of flaps, which was contrary to the STC. During the landing, the airplane bounced and began to drift to the left towards the edge of the runway surface. The pilot performed a go-around and elected to turn left to enter the downwind pattern. During the left turn, directional control of the airplane was lost, and the airplane descended and impacted terrain. An examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any pre-impact anomalies. Fracture and bending signatures on the throwover style control column and hub were consistent with the controls being positioned toward the left seat during the accident sequence. It is unknown whether the flight was instructional, and it could not be conclusively determined which occupant was at the controls at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control while operating with a fuel imbalance. Contributing to the accident was the pilot/owner's decision to fly the airplane outside of the operating limitations.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN09FA405
- Event ID
- 20090703X51138
- Case number
- CEN09FA405
- 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: 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: 240844f15bcf0d62c05565f96045453eb76c87182ebe001661ebd47d23851a8f; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:19:59.535Z.