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Polynesian Airwars Flight 222

22 Feb 1997 · Honolulu, HI, United States

Beech H18 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb

From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) to Lanai Airport (LNY)

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Event

NTSB case
LAX97FA108
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 H18

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 18
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
N7969K
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)To Lanai Airport (LNY), LANAI, HI
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
Initial climb
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
Loss of control in flight
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

  • Aircraft control › Not maintained
  • Reason for occurrence undetermined

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

NTSB narrative

The airplane was loaded with mail & freight within 57 lbs of its max takeoff weight limit. No malfunction was noted during start or taxi. The pilot made a near-midfield intersection departure from runway 8L at 0622:35 local time. Seconds earlier, a Boeing 747 had completed its landing roll-out on runway 4R, which crossed runway 8L near its departure end. Winds were from 285 deg at 2 kts. The pilot & loader (a private pilot) said nothing unusual occurred during takeoff until the aircraft climbed to 100' agl, then 'suddenly the airplane yawed to the left as though the left engine had lost power.' Despite use of full right rudder, directional control was lost, & the pilot decreased the pitch attitude because of 'severe yawing and rolling tendencies.' The airplane's left wing tip impacted the right side of the runway, the tricycle gear collapsed, & the airplane slid to a stop & was consumed by fire. Due to fire damage & lack of accurate records, neither the total fuel load, the freight's actual weight, the cargo's preimpact location within the aircraft, nor the adequacy of the cargo tie down system could be validated. Weight & balance documents filed with the FAA were at variance with 'duplicate' documents held by the operator. Exam of the engines did not reveal evidence of a preimpact failure. Propeller ground scars on the runway indicated both engines were operating during impact. The accident occurred during the pilot's last flight as an employee with the company.

Probable cause

loss of aircraft control for undetermined reason(s).

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX97FA108
Event ID
20001208X07415
Case number
LAX97FA108
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: 6ea845ce380924fa37871ac23d0d47fd02d6e3deb6664e5598458b1cccc6da59; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:41:55.173Z.