CEN09CA342 · Beech S35
Beech S35 · Accident: flight instrument malfunction/failure during takeoff
From Flat Bush Airport (XA99) to Flat Bush Airport (XA99)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN09CA342
- 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 S35
- 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
- N8636Q
- Operator
- Jackson Steven D
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Flat Bush Airport (XA99), Decatur, TXTo Flat Bush Airport (XA99), Decatur, TX
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Flight instrument malfunction/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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
An annual inspection had just been completed on the airplane and it was flown to the owner's location by a pilot mechanic. The owner pilot entered the airplane with the engines running and took control of the airplane from the pilot mechanic. The owner pilot then performed a takeoff on a wet, grass runway. The pilot stated that the airspeed indicator stopped increasing at about 60 knots indicated airspeed, so he aborted the takeoff; during which, the airplane slid on the runway approximately 1,200 feet before the pilot attempted a right turn onto a taxi-way. During the turn the left main landing gear collapsed and the airplane slid into trees located near the taxiway, damaging the left aileron. Examination of the airplane revealed dirt and insect larvae in the pitot tube. The pilot mechanic stated that he performed a preflight, but did not inspect the pitot tube.
Probable cause
Both pilots' inadequate preflight inspection and failure to identify the presence of dirt and insect larvae in the pitot tube, and the owner-pilot's attempt to turn off the runway and onto the taxiway at an excessive speed during the aborted takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN09CA342
- Event ID
- 20090608X62124
- Case number
- CEN09CA342
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 6caf1c2f8f43bda9bcc8ece1797c1f69ce6685d838d4304b4a77b2eb9f2437a1; retrieved 2026-09-15T11:19:55.095Z.