CHI90LA018 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water while taxiing
From Kokomo Municipal Airport (OKK) to 3HA · Lansing, IL
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90LA018
- 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 A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N6736L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kokomo Municipal Airport (OKK), Kokomo, INTo 3HA · Lansing, IL
- 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- On ground/water 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Airport personnel › Other airport/runway maintenance, poor
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
- Terrain condition › Ditch
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ATTEMPTING TO TAXI FROM THE RUNWAY TO THE HANGAR/RAMP AREA AFTER LANDING, THE PLT TAXIED ACROSS A GRASSY AREA TO GET TO THE MARKED TEMPORARY GRASS TAXIWAY. AS HE TAXIED THROUGH THE GRASSY AREA, THE ACFT'S LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR DROPPED INTO AN UNMARKED HOLE WHICH THE PLT ESTIMATED TO BE 23' DEEP. THE PLT WAS ABLE TO TAXI THE ACFT OUT OF THE HOLE BY USING POWER; HOWEVER SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE RESULTED TO THE ACFT. THE ARPT WAS IN THE MIDST OF ONGOING CONSTRUCTION, AND THE HOLE WAS ONE OF SEVERAL CAUSED BY THE RELOCATION OF THE VASI LIGHT INSTALLATION DUE TO RUNWAY EXPANSION. THE AIRPORT MANAGEMENT STATED THAT THE HOLES HAD BEEN 'RESTORED' AFTER THE VASI STRUCTURES WERE REMOVED; THEY WERE 'RESTORED' AGAIN THE DAY AFTER THE ACCIDENT. THE PLT DESCRIBED THE LIGHT CONDITIONS AS 'DARK NIGHT' AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
PILOT'S POOR JUDGEMENT IN ELECTING TO TAXI ACROSS AN UNMARKED AREA IN DARK NIGHT CONDITIONS, AT AN AIRPORT WITH KNOWN CONSTRUCTION IN PROGRESS AND THE AIRPORT MANAGEMENT'S FAILURE TO ASSURE THE INITIAL REPAIRS WERE SUFFICIENT TO CORRECT THE HOLES MADE DURING CONSTRUCTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90LA018
- Event ID
- 20001213X29571
- Case number
- CHI90LA018
- 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: 25624999d58089a5acc9fff2f33e4826ab44322e75182ec175cd08cfae26215f; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:03:00.645Z.