Ajax Leasing Beech BE-18 accident
Beech BE-18 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89FA098
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Beech BE-18
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft BE-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
- N3281T
- Operator
- Ajax Leasing
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), Covington, KYTo Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), DETROIT METRO, MI
- 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 control surfaces/attachments › Ice
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not possible
- Pilot in command › Ice/frost removal from aircraft, not performed
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
N3281T WAS ATTEMPTING AN INSTRUMENT DEPARTURE WHEN IT CRASHED LEFT OF THE EXTENDED CENTER LINE OF RUNWAY 18. THE FLIGHT WAS OBSERVED CLIMBING THROUGH 200 FEET PRIOR TO DESCENDING TO THE GROUND. PRIOR TO TAXIING TO TAKEOFF THE PILOT FAILED TO DEICE THE AIRFRAME. AIRPLANES ON THE PARKING RAMP AROUND N3281T DEICED PRIOR TO TAKEOFF. WEATHER REPORTS INDICATED THAT TEMP/DEW POINT WERE 26 AND 23 DEGREES RESPECTIVELY. THE SURFACE OBSERVATION ALSO REPORTED FOG AS A RESTRICTION TO VISIBILITY. ACCORDING TO THE AIRPLANE'S HANDBOOK THAT TESTS PROVE THAT A COAT OF FROST ON A WING CAN DESTROY ITS LIFT.
Probable cause
PILOT ATTEMPTED A TAKEOFF WITH COATING OF FROST ON THE AIRFRAME WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF LIFT DURING CLIMBOUT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89FA098
- Event ID
- 20001213X27823
- Case number
- ATL89FA098
- 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: 7e9c329bb3e5b145bcb0a4b680c3932c465eac7b26acf771201215c266e679df; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:09:23.432Z.