FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

CHI01LA304 · Beech C23

3 Sept 2001 · St. Helen, MI, United States

Beech C23 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff

From St Helen Airport (6Y6) to Brighton Airport (45G)

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
CHI01LA304
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
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 C23

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 23
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
N9310S
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From St Helen Airport (6Y6), St. Helen, MITo Brighton Airport (45G), Brighton, MI
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 · rejected takeoff
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 on ground/water
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 › Airspeed, not attained
  • Pilot in command › Lift-off, premature

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot attempted a short and soft field takeoff on runway 18 (2,600 feet by 110 feet, dry/turf). The pilot reported that during the takeoff roll he set full engine power, held the yoke aft, and the airplane lifted off into ground effect. The pilot stated that after the liftoff the airplane settled back to the runway, and at which time he aborted the takeoff. The pilot reported that he reduced the engine power, set the mixture control to idle cutoff, and applied full brake pressure. The pilot stated that he was unable to stop prior to impacting the airport perimeter fence. The aircraft was approximately 75 pounds below the certified maximum gross weight at the time of the accident. The pilot reported no airframe or engine malfuctions or anomalies.

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to attain the proper airspeed which resulted in a premature lift-off and subsequent stall/mush. A factor to the accident was the fence.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI01LA304
Event ID
20010914X01946
Case number
CHI01LA304
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: c3927ffafd99c36736137632e9e33daeea01f4be22c26c529f17ab27f2121377; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:35:19.420Z.