ERA14LA218 · Beech V35B
Beech V35B · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Middlesboro-Bell County Airport (1A6) to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's damage. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA14LA218
- 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 V35B
- 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
- N702JS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Middlesboro-Bell County Airport (1A6), Middlesboro, KYTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 40 years (built 1974)
- 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 final
- 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 in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial Possible conflict
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot departed in the airplane, which he had purchased that morning, with his dog onboard. According to the airplane's previous owner, who witnessed the accident, shortly after takeoff, the pilot announced over the common traffic advisory frequency that the "door popped open" and that he was returning to the airport. The witness further stated that, on final approach, about 30 feet above ground level, the airplane banked left, rolled wings level, flew perpendicular away from the runway, and impacted the ground in a flat attitude. The airplane subsequently became engulfed in flames.
Postaccident examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any abnormalities that would have precluded normal operation. Thermal damage around the main cabin door precluded determination of the main cabin door locking mechanism's position at the time of impact. It is likely that the pilot did not securely latch the main cabin door before takeoff and that the door partially opened in flight, which resulted in his decision to return to the departure airport. It is also likely that the pilot's dog was not in an animal carrier, which further distracted the pilot. As the pilot slowed the airplane for landing, his attention was likely more focused on the partially opened door and the dog than the landing, which resulted in his failure to maintain airplane control during the landing approach.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airplane control during the landing approach due to his diverted attention to the partially opened main cabin door and the unsecured dog. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's failure to securely latch the main cabin door before takeoff and to secure his dog.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA14LA218
- Event ID
- 20140503X02721
- Case number
- ERA14LA218
- 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: 3e041c454bb55d36b2f75695c56a2880c6f6c8e59799a8e623263088130b68fc; retrieved 2026-09-15T23:34:23.055Z.