Scenic Air Tours Hawaii Beech H18 accident
Beech H18 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Hilo International Airport (ITO) to Kahului, HI
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA89MA058
- 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
- 11 · 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 H18
- 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
- N34AP
- Operator
- Scenic Air Tours Hawaii
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hilo International Airport (ITO), Hilo, HITo Kahului, HI
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
SCENIC AIR TOURS FLT 21 (BEECH H18, N34AP) WAS ON AN AIR TAXI, SIGHTSEEING FLT FROM HILO TO KAHULUI, HI. THE PLT TOOK OFF AT APRX 1300 HST. AFTER TAKEOFF, FLT 21 PROCEEDED NW ALONG THE COASTLINE AT AN ALT OF ABOUT 2000 FT. THE ACFT SUBSEQUENTLY CRASHED IN A SCENIC CANYON AREA NEAR A WATERFALL IN WAIPIO VALLEY, APRX 50 MI NE OF HILO. IMPACT OCCURRED AT AN ELEVATION OF ABOUT 2800 FT, APRX 600 TO 900 FT BELOW THE RIM. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL PROBLEM OF THE ACFT OR ENGS WAS FOUND. A PASSENGER, WHO WAS ON A PREVIOUS SIGHTSEEING FLT, RPRTD THE PLT HAD MANUEVERED BELOW THE RIM OF A CANYON. COMPANY OFFICIALS RPRTD THAT FLYING BELOW RIMS OF CANYONS WAS AGAINST COMPANY POLICY; HOWEVER, THE OPNS MANUAL DID NOT CONTAIN ANY GUIDANCE OR CAUTIONS ABOUT SUCH OPNS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION TO MANEUVER WITH INSUFFICIENT ALTITUDE OVER OR IN A A CANYON AREA. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE TERRAIN CONDITIONS AND SCENIC AIR TOUR'S LACK OF SPECIFIC DIRECTION TO ITS PILOTS CONCERNING SAFETY PROCEDURES FOR SIGHTSEEING FLIGHTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA89MA058
- Event ID
- 20001213X28542
- Case number
- DCA89MA058
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 5bcc527df479ad96414a35af6cc2f06b67d451d52c85be700d1131fa1d9b3e2b; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:08:52.622Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N34AP; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.