LAX86LA323 · Beech 35R
Beech 35R · Accident: uncontrolled altitude deviation during initial climb
From Sun City West, AZ to Falcon Field (FFZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86LA323
- 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 35R
- 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
- N3371V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sun City West, AZTo Falcon Field (FFZ), Mesa, AZ
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Uncontrolled altitude deviation
- 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
- Stall/mush
- 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 weight and balance, improper
- Pilot in command › Flight manuals, improper
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in personal ability
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A BEECHCRAFT BE-35R LOST ALT DURING INITIAL CLIMB AND COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND AFTER TAKEOFF FROM A PRIVATE AIRSTRIP. THE PLT DESCRIBED THE TAKEOFF AS NORMAL UNTIL HE REACHED AN ALT OF 100 TO 125 FT AGL AND STARTED TO TURN LEFT. THE PLT STATED, 'THE AIRCRAFT ACTED LIKE IT LOST ALL ITS LIFT.' INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THERE WAS NO WEIGHT AND BALANCE RECORDS ONBOARD THE ACFT AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THE PLT WAS USING PERFORMANCE DATA FROM A 'C' MODEL BONANZA FLIGHT MANUAL. THE 'C' MODEL BONANZA IS EQUIPPED WITH A CONTINENTAL E-185-1 ENGINE THAT PRODUCES 205 HORSEPOWER WHERE AS THE CONTINENTAL E-185-1 INSTALLED IN THE ACFT ONLY PRODUCES 185 HORSEPOWER. THE PLT COMPUTED THE GROSS WEIGHT FOR TAKEOFF AS 2,683.4 LBS, 33 LBS OVER THE MAX GWT FOR THE ACFT. THE TEMP WAS REPORTED TO BE 106 DEGREES F AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT AND THE DENSITY ALT FOR THE 1,313 FOOT ELEVATION WAS COMPUTED AT 4,400 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86LA323
- Event ID
- 20001213X34524
- Case number
- LAX86LA323
- 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: e0b7b9be5b59c82081e796bb854dc49503ab6be3325df4b997b172255f986b80; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:52:45.081Z.