J. Richard Wixom Beech E18S accident
Beech E18S · Accident: fire while taxiing
From Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport (JVL) to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's registration and operator. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI85FA170
- 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
- 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 E18S
- 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
- N68V Possible conflict
- Operator
- J. Richard Wixom Possible conflict
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport (JVL), Janesville, WITo Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, 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 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
- Taxi · to 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
- Fire
- 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
- Fuel system, line › Leak
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ON APRIL 20,1985 AT APPROX. 2100HRS LOCAL TIME A BEECHCRAFT MODEL E185 N68Y OWNED AND OPERATED BY BLACKHAWK AIRWAYS INC. WAS CONDUCTING A NORMAL RUNUP IN PREPARATION FOR A FLIGHT FROM JANESVILLE, WI. (JVL) TO CHICAGO IL. (ORD). AT THE COMPLETION OF THE OF THE RUNUP,BUT PRIOR TO TAKING THE RUNWAY FOR TAKEOFF FIRE WAS DISCOVERED IN THE VICINITY OF THE LEFT ENGINE. AFTER ADVISING THE JANESVILLE CONTROL TOWER OF THE PROBLEM AND REQUESTING ASSISTANCE, THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO BLOW THE FIRE OUT AND AFTER BEING UNSUCCESSFUL, SECURED BOTH ENGINES AND EEXITED THE AIRCRAFT ALONG WITH HIS PASSENGER. THE FIRE WAS ESTINGUISHED BY AIRPORT FIREFIGHTING EQUIPMENT ASSISTED BY UNITS OF THE BELOIT, WI. FIRE DEPT. SOURCE OF FIRE APPEARS TO BE FROM A FUEL LINE, BUT EXACT SOURCE UNDETERMINED DUE TO FIRE DAMAGE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI85FA170
- Event ID
- 20001214X36114
- Case number
- CHI85FA170
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1985-04-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 25634a1a42f7a00a3491f085485ad72bd8a40b39232cc5248e0a2560c75f2d18; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:27:15.929Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure. The narrative states the aircraft was preparing for "A FLIGHT FROM JANESVILLE, WI. (JVL) TO CHICAGO IL. (ORD)"; the departure was not recorded.