CEN11FA324 · Woodward Harold L RAVIN 500
Woodward Harold L RAVIN 500 · Accident: fire/smoke (non-impact) during initial climb
From Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport (KCXO) to Temple, TX
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's date. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11FA324
- 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
- 2 · 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
Woodward Harold L RAVIN 500
- Aircraft type
- Woodward Harold RAVIN 500
- 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
- N913RA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport (KCXO), Conroe, TXTo Temple, 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
- Fire/smoke (non-impact)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Task environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Airport tower personnel gave the pilot clearance to depart with a right turn on course. The airplane departed, and as the pilot began the initial right turn, he reported to the tower that he had smoke in the cockpit. The airplane was cleared to land on any runway and was told the wind was from 160 degrees at 8 knots. A witness observed the airplane perform a 240-degree right turn and crossed back over the departure runway before the airplane entered a left downwind leg for runway 14. While on the downwind leg of the traffic pattern, the witness stated that the airplane was flying “slow” with its wings level at an estimated altitude of 700 to 800 feet above the ground. While about 4,500 feet on the downwind leg, the landing gear was extended. Shortly thereafter, the airplane started a descending left turn toward the closer runway 19. The airplane overshot the extended centerline to runway 19 and the airplane’s bank angle increased. The airplane continued in the descending left turn toward the runway until about 300 feet above the ground, at which point the airplane appeared to “stall” and disappear in the trees. Tower personnel reported that during the event, they did not observe any smoke or flames coming from the airplane until impact. A pilot-rated eyewitness located near the crash site reported hearing what he described as an engine that was “screaming” and varying in rpm. When he saw the airplane, it was flying “very slow” at an estimated altitude of 300 to 500 feet above the ground. As the airplane made a high bank angle turn back toward the airport, the witness observed the nose and left wing drop before the airplane went out of sight. Seconds later, he heard it impact trees followed by an explosion. A postimpact fire ensued, which consumed the airplane’s structure. An examination of the remainder of the airplane confirmed control continuity and no apparent anomalies to the airplane’s engine or systems. The examination failed to reveal the origin of the reported in-flight smoke.
Probable cause
An in-flight smoke event on takeoff and the pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11FA324
- Event ID
- 20110505X90031
- Case number
- CEN11FA324
- 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: dbe1277eda714bab2d9cc300624ac82971d2b89fc0c8e8a098ddf3f4638882c1; retrieved 2026-09-13T21:23:20.910Z.