ATL88FA158 · Beech E18S
Aero-Taxi-Rockford Beech E18S · Accident: fire on approach
From Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC) to Blue Grass Airport (LEX)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL88FA158
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
- N300W
- Operator
- Aero-Taxi-Rockford
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC), Rochester, NYTo Blue Grass Airport (LEX), Lexington, 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- Fire
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Leak
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS REPOSITIONING THE AIRPLANE FROM AN ON-DEMAND AIR TAXI FREIGHT FLIGHT. HE WAS EN ROUTE FROM ROCHESTER, NY TO HUNTSVILLE, AL WITH A PLANNED REFUEL STOP AT LOUISVILLE, KY. NEAR FALMOUTH, KY HE CHANGED HIS DESTINATION TO LEXINGTON 'DUE TO A DEVELOPING ENGINE PROBLEM'. HE SAW THE AIRPORT AT CYNTHIANA AND ELECTED TO LAND THERE. WHILE ON DOWNWIND, HE NOTED THE LEFT ENGINE COWLING TURNING BLACK AND ON BASE NOTED FLAMES FROM THE LEFT ENGINE. HE REPTD SHUTTING THE ENGINE DOWN AND FEATHERING THE PROPELLER BUT DID NOT ACTIVATE THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER. DURING THE LANDING ROLL, THE AIRPLANE DEPARTED THE RUNWAY TO THE RIGHT, AND COLLIDED WITH THE AIRPORT WIND 'T', A POLE AND A 'T' HANGAR. POST ACC INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE LEFT PROP WAS NOT FEATHERED AND THE FUEL WAS NOT SHUT OFF. THE LEFT BRAKE WAS INEFFECTIVE DUE TO FIRE DAMAGE. THE EVIDENCE INDICATED THAT THE FIRE BEGAN IN THE VICINITY OF THE LEFT ENGINE ACCESSORY SECTION. THE SPECIFIC FUEL SOURCE OF THE FIRE WAS NOT IDENTIFIED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL88FA158
- Event ID
- 20001213X25381
- Case number
- ATL88FA158
- 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: 92ae636207124a47288f4e3363958108725e9147823225fbb06c7b3306a9ca1f; retrieved 2026-09-23T10:26:31.818Z.