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ATL84FA133 · Beech A36TC

27 Mar 1984 · Atlanta, GA, United States

Beech A36TC · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb

From an unrecorded airport to Dallas, TX

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Event

NTSB case
ATL84FA133
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
2 · 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 A36TC

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 36
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
N3808N
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo Dallas, TX
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
Loss of control in flight
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 handling, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Diverted attention

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Atlanta, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

DURING TAKEOFF, THE PLT RADIOED THAT A DOOR HAD POPPED OPEN & HE NEEDED TO RETURN. ACCORDING TO A PLT WITNESS, THE ACFT HAD CLIMBED ABOVE TREETOP LEVEL WHEN IT STARTED TO LOSE ALT. ANOTHER WITNESS SAID THE ACFT LEVELED OFF & STARTED TO SINK, THEN THE NOSE CAME UP AGAIN, BUT THE ACFT SETTLED BACK TO THE GROUND & ROLLED OFF AN EMBANKMENT. AFTER GOING OVER THE EMBANKMENT, THE ACFT BECAME AIRBORNE AGAIN AND IMPACTED IN A NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE. THE GROUND WITNESS RECALLED THAT WHEN THE ACFT PASSED HIS POSITION NEAR THE RWY, THE DOOR WAS OPEN & AN OBJECT THAT LOOKED LIKE A SEAT BELT WAS HANGING OUT THE TOP OF THE DOOR.AN EXAM OF THE DOOR REVEALED NO PREIMPACT PROBLEM THAT WOULD HAVE PREVENTED IT FROM CLOSING PROPERLY. IMPACT MARKS WERE FOUND ON THE GROUND NEAR THE END OF THE RWY WHERE THE LANDING GEAR HAD TOUCHED DOWN HARD, BEFORE THE ACFT WENT OVER THE EMBANKMENT. ACCORDING TO THE OPERATOR'S MANUAL, AN UNLOCKED DOOR WOULD NOT AFFECT THE FLT CHARACTERISTICS, EXCEPT TO SLIGHTLY REDUCE THE CLIMB RATE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL84FA133
Event ID
20001214X38944
Case number
ATL84FA133
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: b681fc3fa3698d94ff0e5358bdf5f0ceb6e1c019f021fe6a701bcea41f27d0cd; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:36:00.713Z.