ANC04FA021 · Beech J35
Beech J35 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From 34J · NEW SMYRNA BA, FL to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC04FA021
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech J35
- 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
- N8389D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 34J · NEW SMYRNA BA, FLTo Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY), New Orleans, LA
- 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 missed 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
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Lack of certification
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The non-instrument rated solo private pilot filed an IFR cross-country flight plan for a flight along coastal terrain. While en route, the pilot contacted the terminal radar approach control (TRACON) specialist on duty and requested that his IFR flight plan be amended in order to make an unplanned fuel stop. The accident airplane was given priority handling over other arriving aircraft, and was cleared for the instrument landing system (ILS) approach. A review of air-to-ground communications tapes, transcripts, and archived radar data, revealed that the accident pilot was unable to intercept the glide slope and localizer for the ILS approach to runway 17, or to maintain an assigned altitude or heading. The TRACON specialist was attempting to sequence the pilot for a third attempt to the ILS approach for runway 17, when the pilot stated, in part, "I can't, I can't...I've lost it...." No further radio contact was received from the accident airplane, and the airplane disappeared from the TRACON specialist's radar screen. Search crews located the wreckage about 14 miles north-northwest of the airport, in an area of swampy, tree-covered terrain. The airplane was destroyed by impact forces. No preaccident mechanical anomalies were discovered during the investigation. At the time of the accident the reported weather was, in part: Wind, 090 degrees (true) at 10 knots; visibility, 3/4 statute miles with mist; clouds and sky condition, 100 feet overcast; temperature, 55 degrees F; dew point, 55 degrees F; altimeter, 29.98 inHg.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to conduct flight that exceeded his demonstrated skills/ability. Also causal was his failure to properly execute the instrument approach. Contributing factors were low ceiling, fog, and the pilot's lack of the appropriate certification for the flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC04FA021
- Event ID
- 20040219X00202
- Case number
- ANC04FA021
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2004-02-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 65ca714e3c7aaeece9f9acd7d66306e5a777c49524e6445d0c7f5b8cec23fa79; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:34:27.567Z.