Piston Beechcraft Accidents 1/18/2024 through 1/24/2024
Official information from FAA and NTSB sources (unless otherwise noted). Editorial comments (contained in parentheses), year-to-date summary and closing comments are those of the author. All information is preliminary and subject to change. Comments are meant solely to enhance flying safety. Please use these reports to help you more accurately evaluate the potential risks when you make your own decisions about how and when to fly.
©2024 Mastery Flight Training, Inc. All Rights Reserved
THE WEEKLY ACCIDENT UPDATE IS AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCT OF MASTERY FLIGHT TRAINING, INC.
The 2023 End of Year Piston Beech Accident Summary update 1 is posted on the Mastery Flight Training, Inc. website. This summary will be updated and linked from the Beech Weekly Accident Update as new information comes in.
New 2024 reports this week
1/17 1710Z (1210 local Wednesday afternoon): A Be58 was landing at Oak Island, North Carolina, when it “retracted the gear resulting in a gear collapse.” The solo pilot was unhurt and airplane damage is “minor.” N3804M (TJ-328) is a 1981 58P.
(“Inadvertent gear retraction during landing”—the unusual wording of this report suggests the pilot admitted accidentally retracting the gear during the landing roll. Oak Island is the location of the Cape Fear airport with a 5500 foot runway, so even though it’s not advantageous in Beech airplanes to retract flaps to shorten landing distance and most type-knowledgeable instructors advise against any reconfiguration during landing primarily to avoid this verry type of mishap, this was not a short runway even by P-Baron standards. As an “incident” and not an “accident,” public investigation of this event will not go further and it will not appear in any NTSB-derive accident trend studies. This sort of thing happens more often than most realize).
New 2024 NTSB reports this week
There are no newly posted piston Beechcraft NTSB reports this week.
2024 SUMMARY
Reported Beechcraft piston mishaps, 2024:
Total reported: 7 reports
Environment
Operation in VMC: 2 reports
Operation in IMC: 0 reports
Weather “unknown” or “not reported”: 5 reports
Operation at night: 1 report
Most Serious Injury
“Serious” injury accidents (not involving fatalities): 0 reports
Fatal accidents: 1 report
Aircraft damage
“Substantial” damage: 0 reports
Aircraft “destroyed”: 2 reports
BONANZA/BARON Series: 6 reports
By Aircraft Type
Be33 Debonair/Bonanza 2 reports
Be35 Bonanza 1 report
Be36 Bonanza 1 report
Be55 Baron 1 report
Be58 Baron 1 report
Environment
Operation in VMC: 1 report
Operation in IMC: 0 reports
Weather “unknown” or “not reported”: 5 reports
Operation at night: 1 report
Most Serious Injury
“Serious” injury accidents (not involving fatalities): 0 reports
Fatal accidents: 1 report
Aircraft damage
“Substantial” damage: 0 reports
Aircraft “destroyed”: 1 report
PRELIMINARY DETERMINATION OF CAUSE
(all subject to update per official findings):
FATAL and SERIOUS INJURY EVENTS 1 report
Loss of Control in Flight (LOC-I)
Stall/spin/Loss of control in flight/Dual instruction 1 report (Be55)
OTHER EVENTS 5 reports
Landing gear related mishaps
Gear collapse during landing 2 reports (Be33; Be35)
Inadvertent gear retraction during landing 1 report (Be58)
Wheel separation during landing 1 report (Be36)
Impact during landing
“Runway overrun/door open after liftoff/attempted to land on remaining runway/nose gear collapse” 1 report (Be33)
BEECH AERO CLUB Series: 1 report
By Aircraft Type
Be23 Musketeer/Sundowner 1 report
Environment
Operation in VMC: 1 report
Operation in IMC: 0 reports
Weather “unknown” or “not reported”: 0 reports
Operation at night: 0 reports
Most Serious Injury
“Serious” injury accidents (not involving fatalities): 0 reports
Fatal accidents: 0 reports
Aircraft damage
“Substantial” damage: 0 reports
Aircraft “destroyed”: 1 report
PRELIMINARY DETERMINATION OF CAUSE
(all subject to update per official findings):
FATAL and SERIOUS INJURY EVENTS 0 reports
OTHER EVENTS 1 report
Impact on landing
Hard landing/nose gear collapse/destroyed by fire 1 report (Be23)
MISCELLANEOUS Models: 0 reports
Environment
Operation in VMC: 0 reports
Operation in IMC: 0 reports
Weather “unknown” or “not reported”: 0 reports
Operation at night: 0 reports
Most Serious Injury
“Serious” injury accidents (not involving fatalities): 0 reports
Fatal accidents: 0 reports
Aircraft damage
“Substantial” damage: 0 reports
Aircraft “destroyed”: 0 reports
PRELIMINARY DETERMINATION OF CAUSE
(all subject to update per official findings):
FATAL and SERIOUS INJURY EVENTS 0 reports
OTHER EVENTS 0 reports
Recognize an N-number? Want to check on friends or family that may have been involved in a cited mishap? Click here to find the registered owner. Please accept my sincere personal condolences if you or anyone you know was involved in a mishap. I welcome your comments, suggestions and criticisms.
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