CEN11IA280 · Beech 90B
University of Oklahoma, Dept of Aviation Beech 90B · Incident: aircraft structural failure on approach
From University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport (OUN) to University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport (OUN)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11IA280
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- 0 · 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 90B
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 90
- 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
- N37OU
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport (OUN), Norman, OKTo University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport (OUN), Norman, OK
- 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 pattern downwind
- 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
- Aircraft structural failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The certified flight instructor (CFI) reported that the airplane was on a downwind leg for landing when a pilot-rated passenger who was sitting in the cabin told him that the right aileron was partially separated from the airplane. The CFI took control of the airplane and landed it uneventfully. The post incident inspection of the airplane revealed that the two inboard aileron hinges were separated from the airframe. The screws (8 screws, 4 upper, 4 lower) which attached the aileron to the aileron hinge points were seated in the aileron skin, but did not screw into the corresponding nut plates on the aileron hinge points. The aileron was not damaged so a mechanic attached the aileron properly to the aileron hinge points and the airplane was returned to service. Maintenance records indicated that the airplane had undergone a phase inspection 10 days prior to the incident. During the phase inspection, the right aileron was removed to repair some light surface corrosion and was reinstalled on the airplane. The incident occurred 5.3 hours after the phase inspection was performed. Eight years prior to the accident, the aircraft manufacturer issued a communique which stated that their technical support department had received reports that during aileron installation, screws missed the nut plates on the aileron hinge points. It stated that this condition can go unnoticed.
Probable cause
The mechanic's improper installation of the aileron.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11IA280
- Event ID
- 20110412X74253
- Case number
- CEN11IA280
- 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. 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: 7d0dbea2cfdad8f7c250b66f3d31509bbe6f7977257133944761e0bd4f5af8e7; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:03:07.574Z.