Ameriflight Beech C 99 accident
Beech C 99 · Accident: flight control system malfunction/failure during takeoff
From Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) to Ely Airport Yelland Field (ELY)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR15LA203
- 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 C 99
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft C-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
- N6199D
- Operator
- Ameriflight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Salt Lake City, UTTo Ely Airport Yelland Field (ELY), Ely, NV
- Aircraft age
- About 34 years (built 1981)
- 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
- Takeoff
- Defining eventThe 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
- Flight control system malfunction/failure
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot and copilot reported that, after a normal start and taxi, the airplane was cleared for takeoff. The pilot reported that he began the takeoff roll and, once the airplane reached 100 knots, he rotated the airplane. He added that the airplane immediately experienced an uncommanded right yaw and that the right rudder pedal was "at the floor." Both pilots applied pressure to the left rudder pedal; however, the pedal barely moved. The pilot then tried to manipulate the rudder trim; however, the airplane continued to yaw right. He then manipulated the throttle controls and landed the airplane on the left side of the runway. The airplane remained difficult to control, and subsequently, the left landing gear collapsed, and the airplane slid to a stop on its left side.
Postaccident examination of the cockpit revealed that the rudder trim was fully trimmed to the nose-right position. Examination of the rudder and rudder trim assembly revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The reason for the unmanageable right yaw could not be determined.
Probable cause
The airplane’s unmanageable right yaw during takeoff for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examination of the rudder and rudder assembly did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR15LA203
- Event ID
- 20150701X21125
- Case number
- WPR15LA203
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5eaafca4f177e1c25442dace59112725d8e53d211abf53c57ab9ad1675d30763; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:28:44.699Z.