WPR19FA246 · Beech 33 35B33
Beech 33 35B33 · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Miller Field (VTN) to St Ignatius Airport (52S)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR19FA246
- 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
- 3 · 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 33 35B33
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 33
- 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
- N9529Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miller Field (VTN), Valentine, NETo St Ignatius Airport (52S), St. Ignatius, MT
- Aircraft age
- About 57 years (built 1962)
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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
- Wire
- 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 › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot and two passengers departed on a multi-leg cross-country flight. Video from a camera affixed to the airplane’s right wing indicated that, as the airplane approached a ranch near the destination airport, the pilot overflew a set of power distribution lines, then descended to a lower altitude to overfly the ranch. The airplane impacted a second set of power lines, severing the left wing, left aileron, and the upper sections of the rudder and vertical stabilizer, then descended to the ground. Multiple witnesses reported hearing the airplane approaching the ranch, then seeing the airplane impact the power distribution lines. One witness stated that the pilot often overflew the ranch to announce his arrival but that he had never seen him fly that low. Examination of the airplane revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The circumstances of the accident are consistent with the pilot’s decision to fly at low altitude and his failure to maintain clearance from powerlines, which resulted in impact with power lines and, subsequently, terrain.
Probable cause
The pilot’s decision to maneuver the airplane at a low altitude, which resulted in impact with power lines and terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR19FA246
- Event ID
- 20190829X05958
- Case number
- WPR19FA246
- 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, 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: 22e2bb4c92ae53d03e49bd8eb56187549ec43c945d62c4200a4decdc821b3b1c; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:04:40.488Z.