GAA18CA407 · Beech 58 TC
Beech 58 TC · Accident: runway excursion during takeoff
From Mackinac Island Airport (MCD) to Dupage Airport (DPA)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA407
- 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
- General aviation
- 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 58 TC
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 58
- 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
- N66568
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mackinac Island Airport (MCD), Mackinac Island, MITo Dupage Airport (DPA), Chicago/West Chicago, IL
- Aircraft age
- About 39 years (built 1979)
- 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
- Takeoff · rejected 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
- Runway excursion
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the twin-engine airplane reported that, during the takeoff roll on the 3,500-ft-long runway, the airspeed indicator did not indicate an airspeed, so he rejected the takeoff. He added that he attempted to brake, but "full braking [was] not initially possible due to lift." Subsequently, the airplane overran the runway onto a downhill grassy area and struck a fence.
During postaccident examination of the airplane, the pilot found that the pitot tube cover had not been removed before the flight.
According to the manufacturer, the typical takeoff roll is about 1,336 ft, and the approximate landing roll is 1,440 ft. If the pilot had rejected the takeoff sooner, he likely could have stopped the airplane on the runway.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot added that his preflight memory list was: fuel, oil, tires, props, and surfaces and that he will now add "chocks, cowl plugs, pitot tube covers."
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to remove the pitot tube cover during the preflight inspection, which resulted in his delayed decision to reject the takeoff with insufficient runway remaining to safely stop the airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA407
- Event ID
- 20180710X31220
- Case number
- GAA18CA407
- 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: 79183be2ba57f728861506cde76549dda9674072c363feb8ae486f460061cde9; retrieved 2026-09-16T07:48:25.092Z.