ERA14CA040 · Beech E 55
Tug Aviation Beech E 55 · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Tri-Cities Regional TN/VA Airport (TRI) to Tri-Cities Regional TN/VA Airport (TRI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA14CA040
- 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 E 55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft E-55
- 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
- N1908L
- Operator
- Tug Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tri-Cities Regional TN/VA Airport (TRI), Blountville, TNTo Tri-Cities Regional TN/VA Airport (TRI), Blountville, TN
- Aircraft age
- About 37 years (built 1976)
- 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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
- Tower/antenna (incl guy wires)
- 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 › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot and the certificated flight instructor (CFI), the intent of the flight was a proficiency check required by the pilot's insurance carrier, and that the accident occurred while performing a simulated engine failure during the takeoff roll. The pilot reported that after the CFI retarded the power on an engine, the airplane veered to the right. As the airplane exited the edge of the runway he attempted to ground loop it in order to avoid an antenna that was directly in their path. The CFI reported that the pilot "delayed in retarding the power." The CFI subsequently retarded both mixtures, in an attempt to stop the airplane. The airplane subsequently impacted an antenna, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage of the airplane. The CFI reported no abnormities with the airplane prior to the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's delayed reaction and loss of directional control while performing a simulated engine failure during the takeoff roll. A factor in the accident was the CFI's delayed reaction to the loss of directional control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA14CA040
- Event ID
- 20131108X52148
- Case number
- ERA14CA040
- 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: dec8d9e6b69867037b7d89205baa3639ee48ff786804b64f001a8fc082d8777a; retrieved 2026-09-15T23:05:34.183Z.