ERA19LA157 · Barrows Bearhawk LSA
Barrows Bearhawk LSA · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing on approach
From Barrows Airport (VA04) to Holly Ridge/Topsail Island Airport (N21)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA19LA157
- 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
Barrows Bearhawk LSA
- Aircraft type
- Barrows BEARHAWK
- 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
- N289EH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Barrows Airport (VA04), Fincastle, VATo Holly Ridge/Topsail Island Airport (N21), Holly Ridge, NC
- Aircraft age
- About 7 years (built 2012)
- 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
- 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
- Wire
- 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 › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, while on final approach for landing, the airplane impacted powerlines and collided with the ground, resulting in substantial damage. He stated that he knew of the powerlines, but stated that he had not checked the airport/facility directory, which noted the placement and height of the powerlines. Examination of the airplane revealed no anomalies with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. A review of airport information revealed that the powerlines were located 50 ft from the runway threshold and were 60 ft tall. The accident is consistent with the pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from a known obstacle during the landing approach.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from powerlines during the visual approach.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA19LA157
- Event ID
- 20190422X91331
- Case number
- ERA19LA157
- 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: be9487aebc655c8ff89be951f0e399aba940a733db94f82ffe167d67dc7e8308; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:48:04.557Z.