MIA07LA111 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Marion County Rankin Fite Airport (HAB) to Moore County Airport (SOP)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA07LA111
- 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 A36
- 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
- N18491
- Operator
- John M. Kerr II · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Marion County Rankin Fite Airport (HAB), Hamilton, ALTo Moore County Airport (SOP), Pinehurst, NC
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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 › Gear extension, not performed
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot in command › Proper touchdown point, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
About 30 minutes into the flight the pilot reported an onboard fire to air traffic control and indicated his intent to land the airplane. The controller then provided assistance to the pilot in an attempt to aid him in reaching an airport for an emergency landing. A witness observed the airplane with its landing gear and flaps retracted as it attempted to land, going up and down at an altitude of 5 to 10 feet. The witness heard scraping metal as the airplane proceeded along the runway and further stated that the airplane's engine sounded as if it was operating normally, with no signs of smoke or fire. The airplane then gained some altitude before descending and impacting the ground beyond the departure end of the runway.
Postcrash examination indicated that the engine was operating upon impact and that the crankcase had incurred a rupture in the area above and in line with the No. 1 cylinder. The airplane exhibited an oil streak proceeding from the engine cowling along the right side of the fuselage. There was also evidence of oil starvation having affected several internal engine parts. No anomalies were noted with the airframe or other airplane systems and both the landing gear and flap systems functioned normally when tested. The manufacturer's emergency procedures for the airplane indicate that, for both an engine fire and engine failure in flight, the landing gear should be lowered during an emergency landing, depending on the landing surface.
An April 12, 2006, engine logbook entry for an annual inspection indicated that “some metal” was found after oil was drained and recommended running the engine for an additional 10 hours for further inspection. A follow-up inspection on July 20, 2006, indicated neither metal contaminants in the oil nor any oil leaks. On November 15, 2006, the engine was again inspected for both metal contamination and leaks and none were found.
Probable cause
The pilot’s mismanagement of an in-flight emergency, which resulted in a gear-up landing and runway overrun. Contributing to the accident was a breach to the engine crankcase above and in line with the No. 1 cylinder.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA07LA111
- Event ID
- 20070705X00875
- Case number
- MIA07LA111
- 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: 445347b9ba139b0f2ba2a2f74421af938a7334ce3d4bc6a05b54e829d35ee5e3; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:47:40.343Z.