CHI00LA238 · Beech BE-A35
Beech BE-A35 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Wittman Regional Airport (OSH) to Poplar Bluff Municipal Airport (POF)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI00LA238
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Beech BE-A35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft BE-A35
- 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
- N8530A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wittman Regional Airport (OSH), Oshkosh, WITo Poplar Bluff Municipal Airport (POF)
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Airspeed(vne), exceeded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported the airplane was in a descent in smooth air when he heard a loud noise and the airplane began shaking. It stopped when he pulled back on the yoke and pulled the throttle back. He reported he saw the airspeed indicator needle passing below 144 mph on the airspeed indicator after the shaking stopped. The aircraft inspection revealed the aft fuselage and empennage received damage. All four corners of the F.S. 256.9 bulkhead were cracked. The left and right ruddervator static underbalance was checked. The left and right ruddervators were 20.25 inch pounds. The acceptable limits for ruddervator underbalance is 16.8 to 19.8 inch pounds. The airplane's maintenance records were reviewed. The left and right ruddervators were reskinned on October 23, 1996. The ruddervators were primed but not painted. The recorded static underbalance for both ruddervators was 19.5 inch pounds. There was no documentation of any maintenance performed on the ruddervators since they were reskinned. The Airworthiness Directive (AD) 98-13-02 that placed a speed restriction of 144 MPH indicated airspeed on the Models 35, A35, B35, and 35R airplanes had been complied with. The inspection of the airplane revealed it had the required placard and red line on the airspeed that notified the pilot the new VNE speed was 144 MPH. The VNE speed prior to the AD was 204 MPH.
Probable cause
the pilot exceeded the VNE speed restriction of 144 MPH. Factors included the ruddervator flutter and the out of balance ruddervators.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI00LA238
- Event ID
- 20001212X21419
- Case number
- CHI00LA238
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2000-07-31.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 91dba43c9e500ffc9647a53cc84264372e2ea559f28ea9c2fd399e27bed2adfc; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:38:07.119Z.