Alpine Aviation Beech 99 accident
Beech 99 · Accident: gear collapsed while taxiing
From Billings Logan International Airport (BIL) to Helena Regional Airport (HLN)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA94LA218
- 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
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 99
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 99
- 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
- N14MV
- Operator
- Alpine Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Billings Logan International Airport (BIL), Billings, MTTo Helena Regional Airport (HLN)
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- Gear collapsed
- 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
- Landing gear, gear locking mechanism › Overload
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, adjustment, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER LANDING AND EXITING ON TO THE TAXIWAY, THE LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION OF THE BROKEN DOWN LOCK HOOK, LINK, FITTING, AND PIN REVEALED FRACTURES TYPICAL OF AN OVERSTRESS SEPARATION. THESE FAILURES WERE THE RESULT OF THE DOWN LOCK HOOK NOT PROPERLY ENGAGING THE LOCK PLATE ON THE DRAG LINK, EITHER FROM INADEQUATE RIGGING OR FROM EXCESSIVE BINDING OF THE FITTING.
Probable cause
LANDING GEAR LOCKING MECHANISM OVERLOAD AND IMPROPER RIGGING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA94LA218
- Event ID
- 20001206X02148
- Case number
- SEA94LA218
- 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: 8276a4cb8a73156f24699908ebbe82a755fa65027c117455a68ff809939088d1; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:09:08.609Z.