GAA19CA060 · Beech 36 A36
Beech 36 A36 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing during initial climb
From H.A. Clark Memorial Field (CMR) to Catalina Airport (AVX)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA060
- 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 36 A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N264PC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From H.A. Clark Memorial Field (CMR), Williams, AZTo Catalina Airport (AVX), Avalon, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 16 years (built 2002)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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, during an uphill takeoff into ascending terrain, about 4,000 ft down the 6,000-ft-long runway and at 80 knots, he rotated the airplane and stayed in ground effect to gain airspeed. He began pulling back to establish a climb, but the stall warning horn sounded, so he reduced the pitch attitude. He added that he "constantly attempted" to pitch up until he heard the stall horn. At the end of the runway, he retracted the landing gear, but it did not affect the airplane’s performance. He reported that he knew the airplane had attained a positive climb rate but did not know the specific value. He then saw that the airplane was going to strike a tree, so he pulled back hard, but the airplane struck the tree and then impacted terrain.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The airport’s automated weather observation station reported that, about 9 minutes after the accident, the wind was calm, temperature 50°F, dew point 3°F, and an altimeter setting of 30.41 inches of mercury. The airplane departed from runway 18.
The airport elevation was about 6,691 ft mean sea level (msl). Runway 18 was 6,000 ft by 100 ft with a 1.0% up gradient. The calculated density altitude was 7,128 ft. The calculated takeoff distance with flaps up was 2,442 ft, and the takeoff distance over a 50-ft obstacle was 4,440 ft. The calculated climb rate was 670 ft per minute.
The airplane was equipped with additional tip tanks per a supplemental type certificate, which increased the allowable maximum gross weight to 3,833 lbs. The pilot reported that the airplane’s weight at the time of the accident was 3,797 lbs with a center of gravity of 80.7 inches, which was near the forward center of gravity limit.
The pilot added that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector estimated that the tree was 35 to 40 ft tall. The FAA inspector provided an on-scene picture, which included the elevation and latitude and longitude coordinates for the accident site. The elevation was 6,716 ft msl, and based on the coordinates, about 0.4 mile from the end of the runway.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to attain a sufficient climb rate during initial climb in high-density altitude conditions with the airplane near its forward center of gravity and maximum gross weight limits, which resulted in an impact with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA060
- Event ID
- 20181114X54420
- Case number
- GAA19CA060
- 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: 5da4c74d3549c7e439dc59539ee9157685d6f2c17ed9d9f2ab792d2e61aa2fb8; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:26:13.187Z.