IAD96LA117 · Beech A100
Beech A100 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Causey Airport (2A5) to Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD96LA117
- 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
- 0 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech A100
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 100
- 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
- N4391W
- Operator
- Leon Stephens Venters, JR
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Causey Airport (2A5), Liberty, NCTo Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT)
- 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
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Utility pole
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Complacency
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Manchester, NH, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
While executing a coupled ILS approach to runway 35, at about 100 feet above decision height the localizer bar went hard right, the glide slope flag came out and the aircraft turned hard right. The pilot turned the yoke left to counter-act just as the localizer bar went hard left. The aircraft immediately tried to follow and was still in a descent. The pilot countered with opposite yoke and felt for the autopilot disconnect button on the yoke. While attempting to climb the aircraft struck a light pole approximately 1.5 miles off the departure end of runway 35, causing substantial damage to the nose landing gear wheel assembly and left wing spar. Examination of the ILS by the FAA found that the glideslope equipment was out of service, but that the localizer, outer marker, and middle marker equipment was operational.
Probable cause
The pilots failure to maintain control of the aircraft during a coupled approach. A related factor was the unmonitored inoperative glide slope.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD96LA117
- Event ID
- 20001208X06262
- Case number
- IAD96LA117
- 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: 40c368d17433a32f491ad6356213e672fcbcaef650c1f75c0a4ab30aa17a1156; retrieved 2026-09-22T21:50:50.916Z.