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CHI99FA075 · Beech BE-55

22 Jan 1999 · Elkhart, IN, United States

Beech BE-55 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach

From Worthington Municipal Airport (OTG) to EKM

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Event

NTSB case
CHI99FA075
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
2 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
0
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 BE-55

Aircraft type
Beechcraft BE-55
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
N40HC
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Worthington Municipal Airport (OTG), Worthington, MNTo EKM
Aircraft age
Not recorded
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
First occurrenceThe 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
In flight collision with object
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, not maintained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The airplane was cleared for the ILS Rwy 27 approach. Radar data indicated the airplane had intercepted the inbound approach course of 271 degrees. The surviving passenger reported he heard the landing gear extension and saw the three landing gear indicator lights illuminate. He reported that he did not hear the airplane malfunction or hear any abnormal sounds. He reported he saw the glow of parking lot lights in the fog out the left rear window. He reported seeing the pilot looking out the left window and then looking to the front of the airplane. The airplane initially impacted two 40 foot pine trees about 800 feet from the wreckage site. The radar data hit was recorded when the airplane was about 1,300 feet msl and about 2.0 nm from the runway. It indicated the airplane's glide path was about 130 feet below the ILS Rwy 27's glide path. The reported weather was winds 120 at 7 knots, visibility 1/2 mile, light rain, mist, indefinite ceiling, 200 foot overcast, 9 degrees C, 29.77. A weather station 14 miles from the accident was reporting the temperature and dew point as 8 degrees C. Ground fog was reported in the area. The airplane did not exhibit any pre-impact anomalies.

Probable cause

the pilot failed to maintain a proper glidepath and obstacle clearance. Factors were the fog and dark night.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI99FA075
Event ID
20001204X00017
Case number
CHI99FA075
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
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: c7bea8f68d4f00fe3afbc3cc12cba16d36a80be4fc82f0b126a715154baacd7f; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:16:00.115Z.