Beechcraft 95-B55 N8KB

Summary

On 3 June 1997 at about 17:40 local time, a Beechcraft 95-B55 registered N8KB, operated by US Dept of Interior, was involved in an accident near San Carlos, Arizona, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

3 June 1997 at 17:40

Classification

Accident

Location

San Carlos, Arizona, United States

Coordinates

33.5394, -110.4693

Aircraft

Beechcraft 95-B55

Registration

N8KB

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

US Dept of Interior

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Public Use

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX97GA198

2 people died.

The pilot's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed while maneuvering, which led to an inadvertent stall/spin.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The aircraft was on a routine fire reconnaissance patrol. There were no eyewitnesses to the accident. Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) radar data showed no primary or secondary targets at or above 3,000 feet AGL. No record was found that either crew member initiated an emergency transmission. No weather phenomena was observed by any source in the area. The aircraft crashed at the apex of a river bed in a narrow canyon at an elevation of 5,620 feet MSL, and came to rest on a sandbar with a measured 400-foot radius bend in the river. The wall on the west side of the river rises steeply to about 6,100 feet MSL, and the terrain on the east side rises to equal heights over a slightly longer horizontal distance. The trim speed of the aircraft was computed by Beech Aircraft at 120 knots based on the elevator trim tab position in comparison to the gross weight and CG. A 73-degree bank angle is required for the aircraft to make a 400-foot-radius turn at 120 knots. The aircraft stall speed at that bank angle is 111 knots. An extensive postcrash fire consumed the aircraft and no ground scars were observed outside of the immediate area of the main wreckage. According to a Hartzell Propeller report, both propellers were operating symmetrically at blade angles in the governed range during the impact sequence. No preimpact failures or system/component malfunctions were found. A review of past reconnaissance flights over this same route disclosed that the flight's position reports and computed ground speed was consistent with all past flights.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.