Beechcraft G36 Bonanza, N229TT, accident occurred on February 9, 2026, in Gainesville, Georgia

 This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=N229TT

- History of Flight:
On February 9, 2026, at about 1210 local time, a Beechcraft G36 Bonanza, N229TT, registered to AirMart Inc out of Lexington, Kentucky, sustained substantial damage following a forced landing in Gainesville, Georgia. The pilot and passenger and two people on the ground sustained minor injuries. The flight originated from the Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL/KGVL), Gainesville, Georgia.

According to preliminary automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) data, earlier in the day, at 1043 LT, the airplane departed the Tri-Cities Airport (TRI/KTRI), Bristol/Johnson/Kingsport, Tennessee, and landed at KGVL at 1200 LT. The accident flight originated from the airport 5 minutes later at 1205 LT.

ADS-B data show that the airplane departed runway 5 (asphalt, grooved 8000 x 150 ft) and entered a climbing left turn to an altitude of 3,225 ft. At 1208, the airplane initiated a descending left hand turn about 3.50 miles east of the airport. At 1209:26, the airplane was at 1,700 ft, 90 knots groundspeed, and descending 1150 feet per minute (fpm) roughly 1.85 miles away from the airport when the pilot elected to turn left and land on a busy road. At 1210:02, the last ADS-B return was recorded at 1,000 ft, 74 knots (GS), and -1200 feet per minute rate.

An online video showed the aircraft landing wings level and hard into the road before it rear ended a car, veered left, struck two other cars, spun around before coming to rest upright and 180 degrees opposite to its original travel path.

The road has several wires running across and is located ~0.93 mile from the airport.

The pilot reported to a local news station: "We lost our engine taking off out of Gainesville and realized, tried to glide back, did everything by the book, but realized we weren't gonna make it back with how far out we were, so we came down the road."

Figure 1: Flightaware track ran through Google Earth

Figure 2: Google Earth view of landing location

- Weather:

METAR KGVL 091653Z AUTO 08005KT 10SM CLR 08/M06 A3029 RMK AO2 SLP257 T00781056

METAR KGVL 091753Z AUTO 10SM CLR 09/M05 A3026 RMK AO2 SLP248 T00941050 10094 20000 58016