Active Aero Charter Beech E18S accident
Beech E18S · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI93FA193
- 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 E18S
- 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
- N51FG
- Operator
- Active Aero Charter
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF), Louisville, KY
- 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
- Flight/nav instruments, attitude indicator › False indication
- Flight/nav instruments, attitude indicator › Switched off
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS CONDUCTING HIS INITIAL REVENUE AND SOLO FLIGHT FOR THIS COMPANY, IN THIS TYPE OF AIRPLANE. THE WEATHER FOR TAKEOFF INCLUDED FOG AND LOW CEILINGS. THE AIRPLANE WAS EQUIPPED WITH A PRIMARY (LEFT) ATTITUDE INDICATOR WHICH WAS ELECTRICALLY OPERATED VIA AN INDEPENDENT SWITCH. THIS AIRCRAFT WAS THE ONLY SUCH AIRPLANE OPERATED BY THIS COMPANY, WITH AN INDEPENDENT SWITCH CONFIGURATION FOR THE PRIMARY ATTITUDE INDICATOR. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN ON THE AIRPORT, JUST AFTER TAKEOFF. SUBSEQUENT EXAMINATION REVEALED NO ANOMALIES WITH THE ENGINES OR AIRFRAME. THE PRIMARY ATTITUDE INDICATOR WAS LOCATED. ON EXAMINATION IT WAS FOUND TO HAVE A MALFUNCTIONING ON/OFF FLAG WHICH GAVE THE INDICATION OF BEING OPERATIVE REGARDLESS OF POWER TO THE UNIT. NO ROTATIONAL DAMAGE WAS NOTED WITHIN THE GYRO HOUSING.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION, FALSE INDICATION (ON/OFF) OF ATTITUDE INDICATOR, AND ATTITUDE INDICATOR SWITCHED OFF. FACTORS WERE FOG, LOW CEILING, THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S IMPROPER USE OF THE ATTITUDE INDICATOR, AND HIS LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE IN THE TYPE OF AIRPLANE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI93FA193
- Event ID
- 20001211X12548
- Case number
- CHI93FA193
- 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: 60e8b27206c0054f5c813dc22ecb5fe529389bf812c19239476e067abce7da39; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:52:02.698Z.