CEN19LA086 · Beech 65
Bemidji Aviation Services Beech 65 · Accident: system/component malfunction/failure (non-power) during takeoff
From Shalz Field (CBK) to Denver International Airport (DEN)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN19LA086
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech 65
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 65
- 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
- N62069
- Operator
- Bemidji Aviation Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shalz Field (CBK), Colby, KSTo Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 57 years (built 1962)
- 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
- System/component malfunction/failure (non-power)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Shortly after takeoff, the pilot noticed that the crew hatch door, located next to the left front seat, had unexpectedly opened. The pilot attempted to close the door without success. He indicated that, while trying to close the door, he "wasn't able to fully control the airplane normally (mainly [in] heading and pitch)," so he initiated a precautionary landing back to the departure airport. While maneuvering at a low altitude to stay in visual flight rules conditions (overcast ceiling at 300 ft), the airplane's airspeed decreased, the wing tips were dipping back and forth, and the airplane exhibited signs of nearing its critical angle of attack. The pilot retracted the landing gear and applied full engine power to try to gain airspeed. The pilot was unable to gain airspeed, and the airplane was losing altitude. Before impact, the pilot kept the wings level and the nose in a slight pitch-up attitude. The airplane then impacted the snow-covered terrain with the landing gear retracted, which resulted in substantial damage to the left wing and aileron. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no preimpact malfunctions with the crew hatch door; thus, it is likely the door had not been properly secured before takeoff.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to properly secure the crew hatch door before takeoff, which resulted in his distraction and his failure to maintain airplane control and airspeed.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN19LA086
- Event ID
- 20190222X83745
- Case number
- CEN19LA086
- 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, coordinates. 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: 1148ef06e2c97b36335b0e31207f701ac74bda75015afb5292bc590e88970b64; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:36:41.245Z.