ANC20FA005 · Beech V35
Beech V35 · Accident: turbulence encounter while maneuvering
From La Cholla Airpark (57AZ) to Hemet Ryan Airport (HMT)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC20FA005
- 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
- 1 · 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 V35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N14UC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From La Cholla Airpark (57AZ), Tucson, AZTo Hemet Ryan Airport (HMT), Hemet, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 53 years (built 1966)
- 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
- Turbulence encounter
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The solo private pilot was performing a personal visual flight rules cross-country flight at night in mountainous terrain. The flight entered the mountain range on a westerly course then diverted to the east due to encountering inclement weather. The air traffic controller handling the flight lost the airplane on radar and the pilot on radio communications. Several witnesses driving nearby reported that the airplane was flying close to the road at a steep angle before it impacted terrain and a postcrash fire ensued. Two witnesses added that it was dark night conditions, one reported high wind conditions, and another reported poor visibility during the time of the accident. A meteorological study of weather conditions about the time of the accident indicated the potential for reduced visibility conditions, moderate to severe turbulence, and moderate to severe mountain wave conditions. A review of weather provider data revealed that the accident pilot had not received a weather briefing before the accident flight. Postaccident examination of the wreckage revealed no preimpact anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Based on the available information, it is likely that the pilot lost control of the accident airplane when the flight encountered reduced visibility, high wind, turbulence, and mountain wave conditions while flying in dark night conditions in mountainous terrain.
Probable cause
A loss of control in flight due to the pilot’s decision to fly into a mountain range, at night, in conditions conducive to high wind, mountain waves, and turbulence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC20FA005
- Event ID
- 20191126X21659
- Case number
- ANC20FA005
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2019-11-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1d750da7825ac7db0fcf0706360d974edaff1512d8e5fb755f9274493fda8b00; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:08:51.698Z.