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Atlas / NTSB / CEN13CA499

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CEN13CA499

2013-08-18 Wheeling, Illinois, United States Airport · KPWK None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N779RB

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

BEECH V35

Year of manufacture

1966 · 47 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR IO 520 SERIES (285 hp)

Seats / Engines

6 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19660720

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AA8BEF

Registrant of record

RBI TRADING LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s loss of control due to the passenger’s inadvertent application of left rudder during the takeoff roll.

Factual narrative

The pilot and two passengers planned on a local flight. The beginning of the takeoff roll was normal, with light winds down the runway. According to the pilot, when the airplane reached about 60-65 knots, the right seat passenger inadvertently pushed on the left rudder pedal. The pilot was unable to stop the turn; the airplane departed the runway surface and proceeded down a grass embankment. Examination of the airplane revealed substantial damage to the outboard section of the left wing and aileron. The pilot did not report any mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot and two passengers planned on a local flight. The beginning of the takeoff roll was normal, with light wind down the runway. According to the pilot, when the airplane reached about 60-65 knots, the right seat passenger inadvertently pushed on the left rudder pedal. The pilot was unable to stop the turn; the airplane departed the runway surface and proceeded down a grass embankment. Examination of the airplane revealed substantial damage to the outboard section of the left wing and aileron. The pilot did not report any mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).

  • C Personnel issues-Action/decision-(general)-(general)-Passenger - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2013_CEN13CA499.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗