West States Air Taxi Beech H-18 accident
Beech H-18 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX82FA224
- 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 H-18
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft H-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
- N74JT
- Operator
- West States Air Taxi
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT), Fresno, CATo Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Los Angeles, CA
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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 › Tie down, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
JUST AFTER LIFT-OFF FROM RWY 29R, THE ACFT BEGAN TO PITCH UP. AS THE PITCH-UP PROGRESSED, THE PLT APPLIED RIGHT AILERON & FULL RIGHT RUDDER. THE ACFT RESPONDED BY ROLLING TO THE RIGHT WITH THE NOSE FALLING THRU. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE PLT WAS ABLE TO PULL OUT BEFORE THE ACFT HIT THE GROUND. IT COLLIDED WITH A 6 FT WIRE FENCE WHICH TORE OFF THE ENGINES & CAUSED THE ACFT TO ROTATE CLOCKWISE ON THE GROUND. CARGO IN THE ACFT WAS THROWN THRU THE SIDE OF THE FUSELAGE. THE PLT EXITED THE ACFT WITHOUT INJURY. THE ACFT IMMEDIATELY BURST INTO FLAMES & THE FUSELAGE WAS BADLY BURNED. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT 2989 LBS OF FREIGHT PLUS A 359 LB MOTORCYCLE WERE BEING CARRIED BETWEEN BULKHEADS 5 & 11. THE BULKHEAD LOADS WERE LIMITED TO 450 LBS (5-8) & 300 LBS (8-10). THE MAX GROSS WEIGHT AT TAKEOFF WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 10,310 LBS. THE PLT REPORTED THAT NONE OF THE FREIGHT WAS TIED DOWN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX82FA224
- Event ID
- 20020917X03661
- Case number
- LAX82FA224
- 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 1982-06-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: cd891c86415958a43ea041b7e8ed549c93c51b8168fa20c7201b6cace3136f79; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:08:58.745Z.