ERA14CA175 · Beech S35
Beech S35 · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) on approach
From Umatilla Municipal Airport (X23) to Florida Keys Marathon International Airport (MTH)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA14CA175
- 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
- N8985M
- Operator
- Tharp James R
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Umatilla Municipal Airport (X23), Umatilla, FLTo Florida Keys Marathon International Airport (MTH), Marathon, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 50 years (built 1964)
- 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 · VFR pattern base
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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 › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that after takeoff the flight proceeded IFR towards the destination airport (The Florida Keys Marathon Airport), Marathon, Florida. He cancelled his IFR clearance, and performed the pre-landing checklist. While on the base leg over water during the dark night, he became distracted by the failure of the landing light. With the landing gear and flaps extended for landing but the power set to 15 inches of manifold pressure, he did not recognize the airplane was descending. When the airplane impacted the water he thought they were at 1,000 feet. He also stated that he attempted to activate the runway lights using the common traffic advisory frequency but stated he could not see them. In hindsight he stated that he must have been too low at that time to see the runway lights.
According to the County of Monroe Assistant Director of Airports, the runway lights at The Florida Keys Marathon Airport come on automatically at night and remain on "step 1." Being a 14 CFR Part 139 airport, a complete night inspection is performed each Friday and Monday, and each working day in the morning a continuous inspection is performed on the runway lighting circuit. As noted in the Daily Self Inspection Reports, the airfield runway lights were functioning properly during the course of the weekend and there were no issues with the runway lighting system. The runway end identifier lights for runway 7 were out of service at that time.
Probable cause
The pilot's distraction in the cockpit while on a visual approach over water during a dark night resulting in the airplane descending until impact with the water.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA14CA175
- Event ID
- 20140330X32413
- Case number
- ERA14CA175
- 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: 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 2014-03-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2ffd1ae3e5ac4336d23b1a89d13a7bd2771e163e4607ba9369469e484314ea2b; retrieved 2026-09-15T23:27:49.098Z.