ATL94FA071 · Beech 58TC
Beech 58TC · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From AL15 to Key Field / Meridian Regional Airport (MEI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL94FA071
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Beech 58TC
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 58
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N200DL
- Operator
- Callahan, Joel T. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From AL15To Key Field / Meridian Regional Airport (MEI), Meridian, MS
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · VFR pattern turn to base
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Gulf Shores, AL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED CHECKING THE SECURITY OF THE NOSE BAGGAGE DOOR DURING HIS INITIAL PREFLIGHT, BUT SUSPECTS THAT HIS WIFE MAY HAVE OPENED THE DOOR WHILE HE WAS PARKING HIS CAR. DURING TAKEOFF ON RWY 17, AT 50 TO 100 FT AGL, THE NOSE DOOR CAME OPEN. HE STATED THAT THE LEFT WING TRIED TO DROP, AND HE CORRECTED WITH OPPOSITE AILERON AND RUDDER IN AN ATTEMPT TO CLOSE THE DOOR. HE LEFT THE GEAR EXTENDED. HE ATTEMPTED TO LAND ON RUNWAY 27. HE ESTIMATED THE SURFACE WINDS TO BE OUT OF THE SOUTH AT 25 TO 35 KTS, WITH GUSTS. HE REPORTED THAT HE LOST SPEED IN THE BASE TURN, AND THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A LEFT WING LOW, NOSE LOW ATTITUDE. THE AIRCRAFT CAME TO REST IN AN UPRIGHT ATTITUDE AND BURNED. AN INSPECTION OF THE NOSE DOOR REVEALED THAT THE TWO LATCHES WERE OPEN, AS WAS THE KEY LOCK. A WITNESS REPORTED THAT THE AIRCRAFT REACHED A STEEP BANK ANGLE PRIOR TO IMPACT. THE MANUFACTURER PERFORMED FLIGHT TESTS ON A SIMILAR AIRCRAFT WITH THE NOSE DOOR OPEN, AND FOUND NO AIRCRAFT CONTROL DEGRADATION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRCRAFT CONTROL DURING THE BASE TURN. FACTORS WERE THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT, HIGH WINDS WITH GUSTS AT THE AIRPORT, AND THE PILOT'S DIVERTED ATTENTION DUE TO THE OPEN BAGGAGE DOOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL94FA071
- Event ID
- 20001206X00836
- Case number
- ATL94FA071
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5c2b644a3828d300bf919473a599a6e0c38fdfed63cadfc43e65c5114b886f77; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:12:31.447Z.