CEN16FA282 · Beech 95 B55 (T42A)
LeMay Aero Club Beech 95 B55 (T42A) · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin while maneuvering
From Millard Airport (MLE) to Millard Airport (MLE)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN16FA282
- 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
Beech 95 B55 (T42A)
- 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
- N55NE
- Operator
- LeMay Aero Club
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Millard Airport (MLE), Omaha, NETo Millard Airport (MLE), Omaha, NE
- Aircraft age
- About 51 years (built 1965)
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot and the designated pilot examiner departed in the multi-engine airplane to conduct an airline transport pilot checkride. Radar data indicated that they proceeded to the practice area and performed two 360° turns. The airplane then slowed, consistent with the pilots' intention of performing a stall. As the airspeed decreased, the airplane entered a rapid descent, and it was observed by a witness as it spun clockwise in a nose-low attitude to ground impact. Impact signatures were consistent with a slightly nose-low, near-flat attitude. Postaccident examination of the engines and airframe did not reveal evidence of any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane. Polishing of the propeller blades from both the left and right propeller assemblies indicated that both engines were likely running at impact; however, the right propeller had more signatures of power when compared to the left propeller.
A performance study revealed that the airplane departed controlled flight about 80 knots, which was the airplane's minimum controllable airspeed with one engine inoperative. It could not be determined if an engine was momentarily inoperative resulting in a loss of control inflight. Both fuel selector valves were found in the auxiliary positions, which according to the operating handbook was for level flight only. It could not be determined if this contributed to the accident sequence. It also possible that an improper stall recovery resulted in an inadvertent spin entry.
Probable cause
The pilot's loss of airplane control during a practice stall maneuver, which resulted in a spin that continued to ground impact.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN16FA282
- Event ID
- 20160724X73215
- Case number
- CEN16FA282
- 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: 1327859661840c9f1d3654df33b0e55b638f97baf5229e87bbd4575c18619cf5; retrieved 2026-09-14T21:56:27.979Z.