- Date
- February 10, 1982, 16:53 local (Feb 11, 1982, 00:53 UTC)
- Place
- Twentynine Palm, CA
- Injuries
- 2 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N200WJBeech 95-C55
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Dusk
- Status
- Completed · report February 10, 1983
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19820210004009A
- Case key
- 72888
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
At 1605, the flt called blythe fss stating he was 25 mi east for landing. When he heard that his business associates in another acft were preparing to depart blythe for Twentynine palms, the plt cancelled his landing intentions & stated that they will be going on to Twentynine palms also. The plts in the other acft were on an IFR flt plan & stated that because of solid instrument flight conditions they did not have an opportunity to leave the ATC freq to communicate with N200WJ. The acft crashed in desert terrain 32 mi east of Twentynine palms. A witness stated that visibility at the accident site at 1630 was less than 1/4 mi with moderate rain. The plt did not have a multi-engine or instrument rating,and his class ii medical certificate had expired. The pax had undergone double bypass surgery in 1975 for severe occlusive coronary disease. The autopsy indicated that the bypass vessel had a freshly propagating clot, totally occluding the lumen.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N200WJ
- Reported as
- Beech 95-C55
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- TE-252
- Airframe hours
- 3,497
- Engine
- Continental IO-520-C, 285 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Business · Part 91
- Operator
- Tom Bethal Construction Compan
- Registered owner
- Tom Bethal
- Departed
- SAD · Safford, AZ
- Destination
- TNP · Twentynine Palm, CA
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 41
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 2, Invalid Medical for flight
- Flight hours
- 1,589 total · 326 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Dusk
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.