Ameriflight Beech 99 accident
Beech 99 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Lake Havasu City Airport (HII) to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05LA038
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 99
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 99
- 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
- N1049C
- Operator
- Ameriflight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Havasu City Airport (HII), Lake Havasu Cty, AZTo Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Phoenix, AZ
- 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
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane collided with a cargo container dolly while taxing in the ramp area. Shortly after landing, the air traffic control tower ground controller instructed the pilot to follow a DC-10 to the south cargo ramp area. The pilot complied with instructions and followed the DC-10 south, along the taxiway on the eastern side of the ramp. The DC-10 stopped, and the pilot assumed that the crew was awaiting parking assistance. The pilot attempted to maneuver the airplane in a right turn, toward the middle of the ramp, and around the DC-10. During the right turn, the airplane's right main gear collided with a short, square steel cargo container dolly. The pilot stated that the eastern taxiway he was following does not conveniently facilitate access to the loading or unloading area used by his company. He added that regardless of the position of the DC-10, he would have made a right turn to proceed on a more direct course to his loading area. The pilot had maneuvered approximately 170 feet west of the easterly taxiway to avoid the FedEx airplane when the airplane collided with the cargo container dolly.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate visual lookout and failure to maintain clearance from obstacles while taxing in a nonmovement area at night.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05LA038
- Event ID
- 20041213X01978
- Case number
- LAX05LA038
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2004-11-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a99ad782c58f230593c8df988bc0a2fd68cf29877c3abeeeee0ffd1ad0d8c76b; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:12:04.165Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N1049C; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, JIKA.