Beechcraft F33 N6728X

Summary

On 1 August 2016 at about 07:45 local time, a Beechcraft F33 registered N6728X was involved in an accident near Blythe, California, United States. 3 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

1 August 2016 at 07:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Blythe, California, United States

Nearest airport

Blythe (BLH)

Coordinates

33.6319, -114.7169

Aircraft

Beechcraft F33

Registration

N6728X

Category

Airplane

Year built

1983

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Blythe → Las Vegas

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

GAA16CA411

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's failure to attain adequate airspeed to climb and her exceedance of the airplane's critical angle-of-attack during takeoff initial climb at night, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall at low altitude.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot was conducting a night, visual meteorological conditions flight from a rural desert airport, and reported that prior to the flight, she did a weight and balance, checked the temperature, and did performance calculations. The pilot reported that after rotation, the airplane was not producing "sufficient power and not climbing as anticipated" and the stall warning horn was audible. She lowered the airplane's nose, and the stall warning horn silenced. The pilot further reported that she heard "scraping" [ground impact] against the airplane, but she could not see the terrain due to the night conditions. Subsequently, the airplane impacted the ground off of the airport, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage. In a follow up email conversation with the pilot's attorney, the attorney said that the pilot reported that the engine was producing power at the time that the aerodynamic stall warning horn was audible and just before impact, but noted that the power was not sufficient. A photograph of the accident airplane provided by the FAA inspector that responded to the accident, showed all three blades exhibited tip curl, torsional twisting and S-bending, consistent with the engine producing power at the time of impact. The airplane performance and weight and balance calculations that the pilot performed prior to the accident flight were requested by the National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge (IIC), but were not provided. The pilot stated she was unaware of any preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. It is likely that the pilot exceeded the critical angle of attack during takeoff at night resulting in an aerodynamic stall. The Federal Aviation Administration has published the Airplane Flying Handbook FAA-H-8083-3A (2004). This handbook discusses aerodynamic stalls and states in part: The key to stall awareness is the pilot's ability to visualize the wing's angle of attack in any particular circumstance, and thereby be able to estimate his/her margin of safety above stall. This is a learned skill that must be acquired early in flight training and carried through the pilot's entire flying career. The pilot must understand and appreciate factors such as airspeed, pitch attitude, load factor, relative wind, power setting, and aircraft configuration in order to develop a reasonably accurate mental picture of the wing's angle of attack at any particular time. It is essential to flight safety that a pilot takes into consideration this visualization of the wing's angle of attack prior to entering any flight maneuver. Stall accidents usually result from an inadvertent stall at a low altitude in which a recovery was not accomplished prior to contact with the surface.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.