GAA16CA191 · Beech C23
Maine Instrument Flight Beech C23 · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Northern Aroostook Regional Airport (FVE) to Sanford Seacoast Regional Airport (SFM)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA191
- 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 C23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 23
- 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
- N2397E
- Operator
- Maine Instrument Flight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Northern Aroostook Regional Airport (FVE), Frenchville, METo Sanford Seacoast Regional Airport (SFM), Sanford, ME
- Aircraft age
- About 39 years (built 1977)
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he landed the airplane on the runway with visible ice and snow, and noted no issues with the braking and steering capabilities of the airplane. He reported that during the subsequent takeoff roll with full power applied, the airplane started sliding to the left. He attempted to control the sliding with right rudder. During the acceleration, he reported the left main landing gear got trapped in area with ice and the airplane departed the runway to the left and impacted a snowbank. The airplane sustained substantial damage to an engine mount and to the fuselage.
The pilot verified that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
The Federal Aviation Administration has published the Aeronautical Information Manual (2014). This manual provides the definition of a contaminated runway and states in part:
A runway is considered contaminated whenever standing water, ice, snow, slush, frost in any form, heavy rubber, or other substances are present.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the takeoff roll on a runway contaminated with ice and snow, which resulted in a runway excursion and an impact with a snowbank.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA191
- Event ID
- 20160413X30453
- Case number
- GAA16CA191
- 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: 89cc9e961bdd13b4d34f678b1481e3365ac0fa401eaab10913c71897f5d8e9e8; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:17:43.072Z.