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LAX83FUJ07 · Beech K35

14 Dec 1982 · Tucson, AZ, United States

Kerley Chemical Beech K35 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering

From 7E2 · Benson, AZ to Tucson International Airport (TUS)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX83FUJ07
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
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 K35

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
N6085E
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From 7E2 · Benson, AZTo Tucson International Airport (TUS), Tucson, 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
Maneuvering
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
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Flight controls, improper use of
  • Pilot in command › Impairment(drugs)
  • Pilot in command › Judgment, inattentive
  • Pilot in command › Proper descent rate, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Spiral, not corrected

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

NTSB narrative

THE ACFT CRASHED INTO RISING TERRAIN LEFT WING TIP FIRST. THE PILOT HAD MADE A RADIO CALL SAYING HE WAS LANDING DUE TO SMOKE IN THE COCKPIT AT 1517 MST. AT 1523 MST THE ACFT CRASHED OFF ARPT ON AN UPSLOPE WITH A 30 DEGREE INCLINE. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE DID NOT INDICATE ANY IN FLT BREAKUP OF THE ACFT STRUCTURE. NO EVIDENCE OF MALFUNCTION WAS NOTED IN THE EXHAUST SYSTEM OR HEAT SHROUDS WHICH MIGHT HAVE PRODUCED SMOKE. SEVERITY OF THE IMPACT MADE THIS A NON SURVIVABLE ACCIDENT. THE DRUGS THAT THE PILOT WAS TAKING CHRONICALLY WOULD HAVE AN EFFECT SIMILIAR TO ALCOHOL; NAMELY CONFUSION, LETHARGY, INATTENTION ETC. THE PILOT IN THE 24 HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT TOOK AN UNKNOWN AMOUNT OF MEDICATION HIS DRUG LEVEL INDICATES HE WAS TAKING IT CHRONICALLY AND IN LARGER THAN NORMALLY PRESCRIBED DOSES.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX83FUJ07
Event ID
20020917X04817
Case number
LAX83FUJ07
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: 118827791832012737e4f10d8688f2a3d761dc08beea0eb50a7dcdd3de1dd948; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:23:09.252Z.