ATL89FA188 · Beech 70
D.L. Porter Construction Beech 70 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Akron Canton Regional Airport (CAK)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89FA188
- 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
- 6 · 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 70
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 70
- 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
- N11TP
- Operator
- D.L. Porter Construction
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Akron Canton Regional Airport (CAK), Akron, OH
- 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
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Accessory drive assembly, drive gear › Fatigue
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vmc), not attained
- Pilot in command › Lift-off, premature
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING TAKEOFF, THE ACFT ROLLED ABRUPTLY TO THE RIGHT AFTER LIFT-OFF. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE RIGHT WINGTIP STRUCK THE SURFACE, THEN THE ACFT CARTWHEELED & CRASHED. THE FUSELAGE WAS DESTROYED BY A POST-CRASH FIRE. AN EXAM OF THE ENGS REVEALED THAT THE RIGHT ENG SUPERCHARGER INTERMEDIATE DRIVE GEAR SHAFT HAD BECOME WORN & ONE OF ITS GEAR TEETH HAD FAILED FROM FATIGUE. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT AN OUT-OF-MESH CONDITION OCCURRED, WHICH RESULTED IN A PARTIAL LOSS OF ENG POWER DURING TAKEOFF. ALSO, THE ACFT WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 679 LBS OVER ITS MAX CERTIFIED GROSS WEIGHT. DENSITY ALT WAS CALCULATED TO BE ABOUT 2000 FT.
Probable cause
THE FATIGUE FAILURE OF THE SUPERCHARGER INTERMEDIATE DRIVE GEAR SHAFT (GEAR TOOTH), WHICH RESULTED IN A PARTIAL LOSS OF POWER, AND THE PILOT'S INITIATION OF LIFT-OFF BEFORE REACHING VMC AIRSPEED. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE WORN INTERMEDIATE DRIVE GEAR SHAFT, THE PILOT'S OPERATION OF THE AIRCRAFT ABOVE ITS MAXIMUM CERTIFIED GROSS WEIGHT LIMIT, AND THE HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89FA188
- Event ID
- 20001213X29022
- Case number
- ATL89FA188
- 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: b05bd58ab19545b9a7f4da14a36d57d9a90cc2f7551c5dd9a54212091bf2e25c; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:12:53.823Z.