CEN20LA140 · Beech 35 M35
Beech 35 M35 · Accident: runway excursion during landing
From Elm Creek Airpark (0TX6) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN20LA140
- 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 35 M35
- 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
- N9883R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Elm Creek Airpark (0TX6), Seguin, TXTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 60 years (built 1960)
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Runway excursion
- 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
During the initial climb, the airplane’s No. 3 cylinder indicated a cylinder head temperature (CHT) about 60° cooler than the other five cylinders. At 1,000 ft above ground level, the first power reduction was made from takeoff power to 2,500 rpm and 25 inches manifold pressure. The pilot reported a “normal reduction” in fuel flow was made with the mixture control. Immediately, the pilot heard and felt a loud, continuous “rhythmic banging” noise. The pilot noted the No. 3 cylinder CHT had reduced to 220° F; however, all other engine instrument indications remained in the normal range, and the engine still produced power.
The pilot decided to return to the airport and land. Once established on the final approach for the runway, the pilot concluded that the airplane was "high and fast.” The pilot reported he was committed to the landing even though he knew he would land "long and hot." After the touchdown, the rollout was “completely under control,” but the groundspeed was “fast.” The airplane crossed the end of the runway and traveled past the runway overrun area. The airplane came to a stop after impact with a fence. The pilot reported the engine continued to run until he shut it down. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing.
A postaccident examination of the engine was performed and a small amount of metal was found in the oil filter; no other preimpact anomalies were noted with the engine. The cause of the noise as reported by the pilot and the low No. 3 cylinder CHT could not be determined based on the available evidence.
The accident is consistent with the pilot mismanaging his airspeed and glidepath during approach, which resulted in a precautionary landing too far down the runway at too high an airspeed to stop on the remaining runway.
Probable cause
The pilot’s mismanagement of airspeed and glidepath during approach for a precautionary landing, which resulted in a runway excursion and a collision with a fence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN20LA140
- Event ID
- 20200406X44555
- Case number
- CEN20LA140
- 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, cause areas. 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: f04c311610408030feb8cbbaf4a9086dba392e94c78c9efc76fb5633a772b7ba; retrieved 2026-09-16T11:24:54.127Z.