NYC03FA079 · Raytheon V35A
Raytheon V35A · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Asheville Regional Airport (AVL) to Wilmington Airport (ILG)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC03FA079
- 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
- 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
Raytheon V35A
- 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
- N7144N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Asheville Regional Airport (AVL), Asheville, NCTo Wilmington Airport (ILG), Wilmington, DE
- 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
- Approach · IFR initial approach
- 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 control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane completed two circuits in holding before being vectored onto the ILS Runway 1 approach in instrument meteorological conditions. The airplane intercepted the final approach course about 4.0 miles outside the LOM, and tracked the localizer inbound, while maintaining a constant altitude of 2,000 feet msl. About 2.0 miles from the LOM, approach control issued an approach clearance, and instructed the pilot to contact the tower. The pilot acknowledged both transmissions, adding "appreciate all your help," which was the last transmission received from the accident airplane. As the airplane neared the LOM, it started a gradual descent to 1,500 feet msl, and slowed to a ground speed of approximately 70 knots. This condition lasted for approximately 20 seconds before the airplane entered a rapid descent, and radar contact was lost. The airplane impacted the ground approximately 475 feet left of the final approach course and abeam the LOM. Damage to the airplane was consistent with a spin to the right. Examination of the wreckage revealed no preimpact failures or malfunctions.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control. A factor in the accident was instrument meteorological conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC03FA079
- Event ID
- 20030423X00551
- Case number
- NYC03FA079
- 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: 3f92ccc99096170d2c3b2cc1dcefd0ca05a0c714db71aa617433dfff09fe3ff2; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:19:53.376Z.