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San Juan Airlines Beech 99-A incident

17 Nov 1987 · Port Angeles, WA, United States

Beech 99-A · Incident: airframe, component or system failure en route

From William R Fairchild International Airport (CLM) to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)

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Event

NTSB case
SEA88IA019
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
Incident
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
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 99-A

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 99
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
N806BA
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From William R Fairchild International Airport (CLM), Port Angeles, WATo Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA), Seattle, WA
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
En route · climb to cruise
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
Airframe, component or system failure
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Minor

Cause areas

  • Electrical system, battery › Exhaustion
  • Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Electrical system, improper use of
  • Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, improper

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

BOTH GENERATOR LIGHTS CAME ON ALONG WITH THE LEFT AND RIGHT FUEL PRESSURE LIGHTS. THE AIRCRAFT WAS BEING FLOWN BACK TO THE AIRPORT FOR A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING, WHEN THE ANNUNCIATOR PANEL LIGHTS BEGAN TO FLICKER. WHEN LANDING FLAPS WERE SELECTED THEY DID NOT OPERATE. THE LANDING GEAR WAS LOWERED AND THREE IN THE GREEN WAS OBSERVED. HOWEVER, THE NOSE GEAR DID NOT FULLY EXTEND. DURING THE LANDING, DIRECTIONAL CONTROL WAS LOST WITH THE AIRCRAFT VEERING TO THE LEFT OF THE RUNWAY. THIS WAS THE CAPTAINS FIRST FLIGHT IN THE A-MODEL, AS HE HAD BEEN ACCUSTOMED TO FLYING THE C- MODEL. THE A-MODELS' AUTO IGNITION AND ENGINE START GENERATOR SWITCHES ARE IN REVERSE POSITION TO THE C-MODEL. IT IS PROBABLE THAT THE CAPTAIN HAD SELECTED ENGINE START, OPERATING FROM BATTERY POWER, INSTEAD OF AUTO IGNITION, THUS LOSING BOTH GENERATORS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record SEA88IA019
Event ID
20001213X32635
Case number
SEA88IA019
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: f2939d02bcff39b975049ee8a55ab3e627860c510897af2eb6de8eaa636ca2c8; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:35:22.763Z.
  • The NTSB's operator name is blank for N806BA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.