Beechcraft C90 N43KM

Summary

On 14 December 2008 at about 21:00 local time, a Beechcraft C90 registered N43KM, operated by Western Wings Corp, was involved in an accident near Rocksprings, Texas, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

14 December 2008 at 21:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Rocksprings, Texas, United States

Coordinates

30.1706, -100.5883

Aircraft

Beechcraft C90

Registration

N43KM

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Western Wings Corp

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Business

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Hondo → Goodyear

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN09FA087

1 person died.

The pilot's failure to properly configure the pressurization controls, resulting in his impairment and subsequent incapacitation due to hypoxia.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot was cleared to 17,000 feet approximately 7 minutes after takeoff. After arriving at 17,000 feet, radar showed the airplane in a meandering flight path increasingly off course that continued through the end of the flight, even after several prompts from the controller. The pilot was cleared to flight level 240 (24,000 feet) after about 6 minutes at 17,000 feet, and about 2 minutes later, while passing through about 18,000 feet, he made his last radio transmission, acknowledging a corrected heading. About 6 minutes later, the airplane arrived at 24,000 feet and the pilot did not make any intelligible responses to controller inquiries for the remainder of the flight. At 1456, radar showed the airplane in a descent to 21,000 feet before beginning a rapid descent and continuing to impact. The airplane was substantially damaged by the impact forces and the pilot, who was the only occupant, was fatally injured. During the review of the air traffic control recordings, it was determined that none of the voice transmissions from N43KM sounded as if the pilot was speaking through an oxygen mask microphone. At the accident scene both bleed air switches were observed to be in the closed position and the airplane pressurization switch on the console was observed to be in the dump position. No other preimpact anomalies were observed that would have prevented the normal operation of the airplane.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.