FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

Business Express Beech 1900C incident

26 Jan 1988 · Philadelphia, PA, United States

Beech 1900C · Incident: loss of control in flight en route

From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) to Bradley International Airport (BDL)

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
NYC88IA078
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
Incident
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 1900C

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 1900
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
N818BE
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Philadelphia, PATo Bradley International Airport (BDL), Windsor Locks, CT
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 · climb to 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
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
None

Cause areas

  • Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, improper
  • Flt control syst, elevator control cable/rod › Jammed

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Philadelphia, PA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE BEECH 1900C TOOK OFF ON A SCHEDULED COMMUTER FLT. WHEN ATTEMPTING TO LEVEL THE AIRCRAFT AT 5000 FT, THE CO-PILOT WAS UNABLE TO PUSH THE CONTROL WHEEL FORWARD FAR ENOUGH TO LEVEL OFF. BY REDUCING POWER, THE CREW WAS ABLE TO COMPENSATE. THE CREW SUBSEQUENTLY RETURNED FOR A NORMAL LANDING AND ALL OCCUPANTS DEPLANNED NORMALLY. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT DISCLOSED THAT A SHOP RAG HAD BECOME JAMMED IN THE ELEVATOR CONTROL PULLEY UNDER THE PILOTS SEAT. THE AIRCRAFT HAD BEEN OPERATED FOR 21 HOURS SINCE THE LAST INSPECTION WHERE THE FLOOR PLATES IN THE COCKPIT WERE OPENED.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC88IA078
Event ID
20001213X24971
Case number
NYC88IA078
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, damage. 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: 8ec94190d92818c287fa973c980a42c52a49cc0e441521d85dc3f0f9b68601b0; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:29:35.918Z.