ATL84IA134 · Beech C90
Beech C90 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA) to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL84IA134
- 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
- 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 C90
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 90
- 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
- N66KA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA), Roanoke, VATo Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, exceeded
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Herndon, VA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT ENTERED AN UNCOMMANDED DIVE AT ABOUT 11,000 FT MSL, WITH RECOVERY MADE BELOW 2,000 FT MSL. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT DURING THE DESCENT, IN ORDER TO ACCOMODATE OTHER AIR TRAFFIC, THE PLT EXCEEDED VNE SPEEDS. SHORTLY, THEREAFTER THE ELEVATOR TRIM SYSTEM MALFUNCTIONED & JAMMED THE TRIM IN THE FULL NOSE DOWN TRIM POSITION. WHEN A BRIEF FLARE-UP OF SMOKE & SPARKS ERUPTED UNDER THE RT INSTRUMENT PANEL ON THE LT SIDE OF THE CONTROL COLUMN THE PLT DELAYED AN EMERGENCY BUT DID NOT RELAY INFORMATION CONCERNING THE CONTROL PROBLEM. POST INCIDENT EXAMINATION FOUND THE ELEVATOR TRIM TAB CABLE BROKEN AT THE TRIM SERVO, LOCATED UNDER THE AFT CABIN FLOOR JUST FORWARD OF THE CABIN ENTRANCE DOOR. FRAYED IN AN IRREGULAR MANNER OVER A NINE INCH AREA, THE LOOSE CABLES BECAME ENTANGLED IN THE ELECTRICAL POWER DIODES LOCATED BENEATH THE CONTROL PEDESTAL. INSPECTION REVEALED THE FRICTION CLUTCH OPERATED AT TOO HIGH TORQUE & THE CABLES WERE OUT OF ALIGNMENT CAUSING HEAT TO OTHER COMPONENTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL84IA134
- Event ID
- 20001214X38952
- Case number
- ATL84IA134
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1984-03-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 44c3e53f62415b96d6252b17b6494992ac04db13b6cc3273604358cd6400dea6; retrieved 2026-09-23T20:41:43.522Z.