CHI90FA028 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Flying Cloud Airport (FCM) to Shell Lake Municipal Airport (SSQ)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90FA028
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Instrument 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
- N1607W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Flying Cloud Airport (FCM), Minneapolis, MNTo Shell Lake Municipal Airport (SSQ), Shell Lake, WI
- 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
- 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 › Minimum descent altitude, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Missed approach, not performed
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AN NDB APPROACH WAS ATTEMPTED TO AN UNCONTROLLED AIRPORT DURING MODERATE SNOW CONDITIONS. VISIBILITY WAS REPORTED RESTRICTED IN SNOW SHOWERS BY AREA RESIDENTS AT THE TIME OF THE APPROACH. THE AIRCRAFT DESCENDED INTO A LAKE ADJACENT TO THE AIRPORT AND WAS DESTROYED. THE PILOT HAD RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING WHICH INCLUDED THE POSSIBILITY OF SNOW SHOWERS. THERE IS NO INDICATION THAT THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO PERFORM A MISSED APPROACH. WITNESS REPORTS INDICATE THAT THE AIRCRAFT HAD DESCENDED BELOW THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE PRIOR TO IMPACT. THE PILOT HAD LIMITED TOTAL INSTRUMENT EXPERIENCE, A LACK OF RECENT TOTAL EXPEREINCE AND A LACK OF RECENT EXPERIENCE IN THIS TYPE OF OPERATION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO PERFORM A MISSED APPROACH, HIS DESCENDING BELOW THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE TO AVOID IMPACT WITH THE TERRAIN. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S LACK OF TOTAL INSTRUMENT TIME, HIS LACK OF RECENT TOTAL EXPERIENCE, AND HIS LACK OF RECENT EXPERIENCE IN THIS TYPE OF OPERATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90FA028
- Event ID
- 20001213X29758
- Case number
- CHI90FA028
- 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: 158d07a202a443a96010bcda618b64e87152eefa757bdbfc583c26754c666ce6; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:05:14.684Z.