WPR18FA261 · Gruber Beelzabub
Gruber Beelzabub · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR18FA261
- 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
Gruber Beelzabub
- Aircraft type
- Gruber BEELZABUB
- 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
- N382T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 11 years (built 2007)
- 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 · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
**This report was modified on September 15, 2022. Please see the public docket for this accident to view the original report.**
A witness reported that the airplane overflew the area, about 500 ft above ground level, before it descended and leveled out. The airplane was in a wings-level attitude when the left wing struck a lone tree that was about 60–70 ft tall. The surrounding trees in the area were about 30–50 ft tall. The airplane continued for about 500 feet before it impacted a forested area and came to rest nose-down against a tree. The witness further reported that the engine was running at the time of the accident. Examination of the airframe and engine revealed no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Toxicology testing detected a low concentration of the opiate morphine in the pilot-rated passenger’s urine specimen but not in the blood specimen, which suggests use was not recent and any sedating effects would not be present. Therefore, the effects of the pilot-rated passenger’s use of morphine were not a factor in the accident. It is likely that the pilot did not see the tree that was taller than the surrounding trees while maneuvering at low altitude.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from a tree while maneuvering at a low altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR18FA261
- Event ID
- 20180914X82828
- Case number
- WPR18FA261
- 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, cause areas. 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: 511b278cd6e7fd1224406c716666e2701521209ef1b180fc16b80c9bc600b268; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:48:03.802Z.