Central American Inter'L Beech 95-B55 accident
Beech 95-B55 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From 3A1 · Cullman, AL to Louisville, KY
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL83FA046
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech 95-B55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 55
- 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
- N18411
- Operator
- Central American Inter'L
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 3A1 · Cullman, ALTo Louisville, KY
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER TAKEOFF FROM RWY 1, THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED TO CLIMB IN A STEEP ATTITUDE INTO THE CLOUDS. THE ACFT CRASHED IN A NEARVERTICAL ATTITUDE ABOUT 3/4 MI FROM THE RWY ON A BEARING OF 050 DEG. THE CONTROL LOCK PIN FLAG WAS FOUND IN THE VICINITYOF THE CONTROL COLUMN WITH THE PIN MISSING. EXAMINATION OF THE ELEVATOR TRIM MOTOR GEARS REVEALED A DAMAGE TOOTH ON THE DRIVE GEAR & A SERIES OF MARKED TEETH ON THE DRIVER GEAR. THE ELEVATOR TRIM TAB WAS FOUND IN THE MAX DEFLECTION POSITION(FULL-UP TAB.) THE ELEVATOR TRIM MOTOR, WHEN OPERATING, TAKES 57.5 SECS TO MOVE FROM NEUTRAL TO FULL UP; 27 SECS TO MOVEFROM NEUTRAL TO FULL DOWN; & 67 SECS TO MOVE FROM FULL UP TO FULL DOWN. WHEN THE CONTROL LOCK PIN IS INSTALLED, THE ELEVATOR IS LOCKED 12 DEGS DOWN & THE AILERON IS LOCKED 8 DEGS RIGHT AILERON UP. THE LEFT PROP BLADES WERE BENT AFT ABOUT THE BLADE FACES. SOME CHORDWISE SCRAPES WERE NOTED. THE PROP HAD SEPARATED FROM THE ENG DRIVE SHAFT UNDER A TORSION & BENDING LOAD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL83FA046
- Event ID
- 20020917X04307
- Case number
- ATL83FA046
- 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 1982-11-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 662bbf6fdda3c1bd24cacc419c988f7e89cf81905498baaa0ef88fd714c8537d; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:31:50.878Z.