CHI88FA075 · Beech E18S
Beech E18S · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET) to Fort Wayne International Airport (FWA)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI88FA075
- 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
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 2
- 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 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
- N900WP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET), Detroit, MITo Fort Wayne International Airport (FWA), Fort Wayne, IN
- 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 performance, climb capability › Inadequate
- Aircraft weight and balance › Improper
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Aircraft weight and balance, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT WAS AN AIR TAXI CARGO FLT CARRYING TRUCK PARTS. AFTER TAKEOFF, THE TWR ASKED THE PLT IF HE WAS IN DIFFICULTY AND THE PLT REPLIED 'ROGER' AND REQUESTED A CHANGE OF FLT PLAN. THE ACFT WAS SEEN FLYING ERRATICALLY JUST ABOVE THE TREE TOPS. THE ACFT DESCENDED ALMOST VERTICALLY INTO A RESIDENTIAL AREA. THE REAR OF ONE HOME WAS IGNITED BY THE IMPACT AND 2 OCCUPANTS OF THE HOUSE WERE FATALLY BURNED. POST ACC INVESTIGATION REVEALED NO ENG MALFUNCTION BUT THERE WERE DISCREPANCIES IN THE LOAD MANIFEST AND THE ACFT WT & BALANCE. BEFORE TAKEOFF A CO EMPLOYEE WATCHED THE PLT SECURE THE CARGO WITH ROPES NETS & CLIPS BUT DID NOT HELP BECAUSE HE 'DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THE PLT WAS DOING.' IMPACT 'AMAGE PRECLUDED DETERMINATION OF THE ORIGINAL PLACEMENT AND SECURITY OF THE CARGO AND ANY POSSIBLE SHIFTING PRIOR TO IMPACT. THE NET WEIGHT ON THE CARGO MANIFEST DID NOT INCLUDE THE WT OF THE TRAYS TO HOLD THE PARTS. THIS WAS AN OMISSION OF 150 LBS. CO PERSONNEL SAID NO WT & BALANCE INFO WAS LEFT WITH THEM WHEN THE ACFT DEPARTED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI88FA075
- Event ID
- 20001213X25227
- Case number
- CHI88FA075
- 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: 40ee8e4bb638ae1b0b5e77b3d22dea736873e3ffd0e563e3a021bcda085550ce; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:11:43.934Z.