Viking Express Beech E-18S accident
Beech E-18S · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Aurora Municipal Airport (ARR) to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI93FA158
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech E-18S
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft E-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
- N80CB
- Operator
- Viking Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aurora Municipal Airport (ARR), Aurora, ILTo Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP), Minneapolis, MN
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Gear extension, premature
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, not possible
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OF A TWIN-ENGINE CARGO AIRPLANE SHUT DOWN THE LEFT ENGINE AND FEATHERED THE PROPELLER DUE TO A LOSS OF ENGINE OIL. THE FAA ARTCC HANDLING THE FLIGHT VECTORED THE AIRPLANE TOWARD A VOR. DUE TO THE AIRPLANE'S ALTITUDE AND DISTANCE FROM THE CENTER'S RADAR, THE PILOT OF THE AIRPLANE HAD TO PERFORM A FULL INSTRUMENT APPROACH PROCEDURE. THE AIRPLANE MAINTAINED ITS ENROUTE ASSIGNED ALTITUDE UNTIL PASSING THE VOR OUTBOUND. NTAP READOUTS SHOW THE AIRPLANE DESCENDING THROUGHOUT THE PROCEDURE TURN AND INBOUND LEG OF THE APPROACH. THE AIRPLANE'S LAST RADAR CONTACT WAS 300 FEET BELOW THE INBOUND ALTITUDE FOR THE APPROACH WHILE OUTSIDE THE FINAL APPROACH FIX. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES AND TERRAIN APPROXIMATELY 2 1/4 MILES FROM THE AIRPORT. THE VOR IS 5.5 MILES FROM THE AIRPORT. THE ON-SCENE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE LEFT ENGINE'S PROPELLER HAD BEEN FEATHERED, ITS NUMBER NINE CYLINDER MOUNTING STUDS ON THE ENGINE'S CASE WERE CRUSHED DOWNWARD OR WERE BROKEN OFF AT THE CASE'S SURFACE, AND THE LANDING GEAR HAD BEEN EXTENDED.
Probable cause
was a pre-mature extension of the landing gear by the pilot which resulted in the inability of the pilot to maintain the minimum descent altitude. Factors related to the accident were the loose cylinder and loss of oil.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI93FA158
- Event ID
- 20001211X12337
- Case number
- CHI93FA158
- 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: a1be468a0d24c9e94cbb4d90987dc8d80fa11ed3568054adbe2115a1523c3eca; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:52:22.124Z.