Polynesian Airways Beech D-18H accident
Beech D-18H · Accident: hard landing
From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA116
- 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 D-18H
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft D-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
- N33AP
- Operator
- Polynesian Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Honolulu, HITo not recorded
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Weather condition › Windshear
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT SAID THAT THE APPROACH TO THE AIRPORT WAS NORMAL, WITH A 100 KNOT INDICATED AIRSPEED. THE PILOT SAID THE WINDS WERE ABOUT 110 DEGREES AT 10 KNOTS DURING THE APPROACH; HOWEVER, ON SHORT FINAL HE ENCOUNTERED A VERY STRONG GUST FROM THE RIGHT. THE PILOT CORRECTED FOR THE WIND GUST THEN IT STOPPED AND THE AIRCRAFT SUDDENLY DROPPED HARD TO THE RUNWAY WITHOUT WARNING. THE PILOT SAID HE SUSPECTED A WINDSHEAR ENCOUNTER WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACCIDENT. WITNESSES SAID THE APPROACH SEEMED NORMAL WHEN THE AIRCRAFT SUDDENLY DROPPED TO THE RUNWAY AND BOUNCED. THE WITNESSES SAID THAT A THUNDERSTORM HAD PASSED THROUGH THE AREA JUST PRIOR TO THE AIRCRAFT'S APPROACH.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO COMPENSATE FOR AN ENCOUNTER WITH A WINDSHEAR PHENOMENA. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE LACK OF A LOW LEVEL WINDSHEAR WARNING SYSTEM OR A SYSTEM FOR THE COLLECTION AND DISSEMINATION OF WEATHER ADVISORIES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA116
- Event ID
- 20001211X14132
- Case number
- LAX92LA116
- 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: 3e51cdf5e3623aaae50997561f46391a65554abaf8b9fc0e97f732796cfd3d28; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:48:19.247Z.