SEA01LA007 · Beech N35
Beech N35 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From AWO to Renton Municipal Airport (RNT)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA01LA007
- 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 N35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N1255Z
- Operator
- John K. Wimpress · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From AWOTo Renton Municipal Airport (RNT), Renton, WA
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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 on ground/water
- 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 › Aborted takeoff, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that as he started the takeoff roll, with full right rudder to compensate for engine torque, the aircraft started drifting right. He reported he then 'slacked off on the right rudder, and the plane started to drift off to the left.' He stated he 'tried to correct to the center line, but nothing seemed to happen.' He stated he then recalled a strong swerve to the right and another back to the left. He reported that as the aircraft 'was reaching near takeoff speed', the aircraft was running off the left side of the runway, and that 'From the time the oscillations began until I went off the runway, I didn't have time or presence of mind to reduce power.' The aircraft ran off the runway, hitting a runway light and a taxiway identification light. The aircraft's nose gear collapsed in the collision with the taxiway sign, and the aircraft subsequently traveled about 300 feet on its nose before coming to a stop. The pilot characterized the accident aircraft as 'more difficult than most to control during taxi and takeoff', stating that 'This particular Bonanza always has had a slight bit of free play in the nose wheel steering' (although it was within specifications on the aircraft's last annual inspection.)
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to abort the takeoff upon experiencing directional control difficulties. Factors included the pilot's failure or inability to maintain directional control, and a taxiway sign.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA01LA007
- Event ID
- 20001212X22254
- Case number
- SEA01LA007
- 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: e46d52f01fda6c4188610df1f7609adbc3d0923a2f06c016f0f5431616953893; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:21:45.003Z.