NYC85LA140 · Cessna 340A
Cessna 340A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From Pittsburgh/Butler Regional Airport (BTP) to W95
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC85LA140
- 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
Cessna 340A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 340
- 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
- N2669Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pittsburgh/Butler Regional Airport (BTP), Butler, PATo W95
- 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
- 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
- Door, cargo/baggage › Not engaged
- Door, cargo/baggage › Open
- Fuselage, cargo compartment › Bent
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Butler, PA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT REPORTED THAT PRIOR TO THE FLT, HE MADE THE USUAL PREFLIGHT CHECK & LOCKED THE LEFT FORWARD, NOSE BAGGAGE DOOR. DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, THE LEFT FORWARD BAGGAGE DOOR OPENED & LOCKED IN AN UPRIGHT POSITION. THE PLT ABORTED THE TAKEOFF, BUT THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT RWY REMAINING TO STOP. AFTER DEPARTING THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RWY, THE ACFT BECAME AIRBORNE AS IT WENT OVER A BANK, THEN WAS DAMAGED WHEN IT TOUCHED DOWN ON A SLIGHT DOWNSLOPE. A FIRE ERUPTED IN THE LEFT TIP TANK AREA AFTER THE ACFT CAME TO REST. AN EXAM OF THE ACFT REVEALED THAT THE LEFT AIRFRAME SUPPORT CHANNEL FOR THE BAGGAGE DOOR WAS BENT. THIS ALLOWED THE DOOR TO BE CLOSED TO THE LOCKED POSITION WITHOUT BEING PROPERLY ENGAGED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC85LA140
- Event ID
- 20001214X36896
- Case number
- NYC85LA140
- 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: e57e606145c7804c074ec6af243311d1955a84146517249389015a1b7667ebf1; retrieved 2026-09-23T17:25:07.328Z.