LAX01FA270 · Beech B36TC
Beech B36TC · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From 054 · Weaverville, CA to Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX01FA270
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 B36TC
- 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
- N1109T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 054 · Weaverville, CATo Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), San Jose, CA
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft performance, takeoff capability › Exceeded
- Pilot in command › Aircraft weight and balance, improper
- Pilot in command › Flight manuals, not used
- Pilot in command › Wrong runway, selected
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to ground witnesses at the airport, the pilot departed uphill on runway 36 into rising terrain, and collided with trees just beyond the runway's departure end. Runway 36 is 2,980 feet in length with a 50-foot pavement width, and has a 3.5 percent uphill gradient with steeper rising terrain to the north of the airport. An airport warning sign states in red "This R/W Closed for takeoff use R/W 18." On the day of the accident, the pilot contacted the FAA Rancho Murieta Automated Flight Service Station at 0823. The pilot questioned the briefer about the takeoff procedure and an "X" that was marked on the runway. A discussion ensued, and the briefer told the pilot to takeoff on runway 36 (uphill), contrary to the intent of signage at the airport and FAA Airport/Facility Directory remarks. According to the briefer, his source of information for questions relating to airport procedures and operations came from the FAA Airport/Facility Directory. The entry for the airport in the FAA Airport/Facility Directory was examined. The first portion of the entry stated: "Airport closed to touch and go; go arounds; takeoff from runway 36 and landings on runway 18." Toward the end of the entry following some intervening information another note stated: "Land runway 36 takeoff runway 18 due to steep 3.5 percent uphill airport gradient and steeper rising terrain to the north." The maximum gross weight of the airplane is 3,850 pounds. Based on known and estimated weights, the weight of the airplane at the time of the accident was about 3,939.0 pounds, or 89 pounds above the maximum takeoff weight. According to the POH and best available information, the airplane would have required 3,750 feet of level, paved, and dry runway surface for takeoff with zero flaps to clear a 50-foot obstacle at the end. Witnesses at the airport estimated that the temperatures were in the mid 90's to over 100 degrees, and the wind was out of the south. Based on information provided by the witnesses, the density altitude was estimated between 4,000 and 4,800 feet mean sea level (msl).
Probable cause
the pilot's selection of the wrong runway, which resulted in an attempted takeoff uphill in a prevailing tailwind toward rising terrain and high obstacles. Also causal was the pilot's loading of the airplane above maximum gross weight and his failure to properly interpret the aircraft performance charts, which showed the airplane required more runway and distance to clear a 50-foot obstacle than existed for the ambient conditions. Factors in the accident were the high density altitude and the confusing and contradictory information in the Airport Facility Directory.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX01FA270
- Event ID
- 20010820X01733
- Case number
- LAX01FA270
- 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, coordinates. 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: a2838ced7e27a6b3755064afa9fc85c381002a3b5367e107ec0d2c104f6ade80; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:25:18.780Z.