MKC89LA187 · Beech V35B
Beech V35B · Accident: fire en route
From Olive Branch Airport (OLV) to Rogers Municipal Airport-Carter Field (ROG)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC89LA187
- 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 V35B
- 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
- N699T
- Operator
- Graebner, Walter D. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Olive Branch Airport (OLV), Olive Branch, MSTo Rogers Municipal Airport-Carter Field (ROG), Rogers, AR
- 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 · climb to cruise
- 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
- Fire
- 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
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Chafed
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Fire
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT/OWNER SAID THAT WHILE CLIMBING THROUGH 9000 FT MSL FOR 10,000 FT MSL, ON AN IFR FLIGHT PLAN, HE SMELLED AN ELECTRICAL ODOR. THE CABIN BEGAN TO FILL WITH DENSE SMOKE, SO HE SHUT OFF ALL ELECTRICAL SWITCHES. AN EMERGENCY DESCENT WAS MADE. DURING THE DESCENT, THE SMOKE WAS SUBSTANTIALLY CLEARED FROM THE CABIN. THE LANDING GEAR WAS EXTENDED BY USING EMERGENCY PROCEDURES. WHILE LANDING ON ROLLING TERRAIN, THE GEAR COLLAPSED & THE ACFT WAS DAMAGED. THERE WAS NO CONTINUATION OF FIRE ON THE GROUND. A POST-ACDNT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE OWNER HAD IMPROPERLY INSTALLED AN ALTERNATOR WIRING HARNESS, WHICH RUBBED ON THE NOISE SUPPRESSOR. AFTER IT RUBBED THRU THE INSULATION, AN ELECTRICAL FIRE ERUPTED.
Probable cause
IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF THE ALTERNATOR WIRING HARNESS BY THE PILOT/OWNER WHICH RESULTED IN CHAFED WIRING AND A SUBSEQUENT ELECTRICAL FIRE. THE UNEVEN TERRAIN WAS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC89LA187
- Event ID
- 20001213X29218
- Case number
- MKC89LA187
- 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: 74643430c66644d6e9443ec201b716ce6e037679c0d6f5fd3eacb14c26a64345; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:15:21.610Z.