K Airways Beech G18S accident
Beech G18S · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From General Mitchell International Airport (MKE) to DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL86MA080
- 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
- 1 · 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 G18S
- 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
- N74FA
- Operator
- K Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From General Mitchell International Airport (MKE), Milwaukee, WITo DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK), Atlanta, GA
- 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 · 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
- Loss of control in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Descent, uncontrolled
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS ALERTED AT 0100 FOR 0200 FLT FM KENOSHA TO MILWAUKEE, WI TO PICK UP CARGO FOR A FLT TO ATLANTA, GA. AT 0310,THE ACFT DEPTD MILWAUKEE IN VFR. EN ROUTE, THE PLT OBTAINED WX & AN IFR CLNC. SOME OF HIS RDO XMSNS WERE NOT STANDARD. AT 0433, HE COMPLIED WITH ATC REQUEST FOR FREQ CHG, BUT HIS RDO XMSNS WERE NOT CLEAR. APRX 5 MIN LATER, ATC ASKED THE PLT TO CHG FREQ AGAIN, BUT 5 CALLS WERE MADE BFR HE REPLIED. HIS LAST XMSN WAS AT 0445:48; HE DIDN'T RESPOND TO FURTHER ATC CALLS. THE ACFT CONTD CRUISING AT 11,000' UNTIL 0621, THEN IT DSCNDD W/O CLNC. RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST AT 0627 CST (0727 EST). SHORTLY THEREAFTER, IT IMPACTED TREES ON A MTN, THEN CRASHED TO THE GND & BURNED. A WITNESS BELIEVED THE ENGS WERE THROTTLED BACK BFR IMPACT. ALSO, THE WITNESS RPRTD LOW CLDS & FOG, BUT SAID THE MTN WAS VISIBLE & WAS NOT OBSCURED. THE PLT HAD A 0.158% BAC, NO SLEEP FOR 21.5 HRS, HISTORY OF ALCOHOL ABUSE, 7 PRIOR DWI CONVICTIONS (& NDR REC). ALSO, HE FALSIFIED FAA MEDICAL APPLICATIONS. FAA WAS ADVISED IN 1984, BUT TOOK NO ACTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL86MA080
- Event ID
- 20001213X32818
- Case number
- ATL86MA080
- 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: 03e6bd49670a06b86a1c13e5dc2c139b2e47377d1b097c41416aa06f62e49c98; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:23:49.704Z.