Wiggins Airways Beech C99 accident
Beech C99 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT) to Presque Isle International Airport (PQI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA24FA097
- 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 C99
- 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
- N53RP
- Operator
- Wiggins Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT), Manchester, NHTo Presque Isle International Airport (PQI), Presque Isle, ME
- Aircraft age
- About 42 years (built 1982)
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The weather about the time of departure included visibility of 3 miles in rain and mist, a broken ceiling at 1,000 ft, and an overcast ceiling at 2,400 ft. The pilot stated that during the initial climb, he heard a loud “pop.” The left door/hatch appeared to be partially open, so he grabbed it with his left hand. The door then opened completely while he was still holding on to it, injuring his left hand. He reached up with his right hand and hung on to the door with both hands but was beginning to be pulled out of his seat, so he let go and, shortly after, the door completely separated from the airplane. After the door departed, the airplane went through a series of unusual attitudes as the pilot attempted to return to the departure airport. He did not recall anything after the last unusual attitude.
Postaccident examination of the wreckage did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunction. The cockpit door was found about 10 miles from the main wreckage. The airplane was also equipped with a portable ladder for pilot entry, which secured to the fuselage under the cockpit door, and was supposed to have been stowed inside the cockpit before takeoff. Although the pilot reported that he checked that the door before takeoff, the portable ladder was found outside and aft of the cockpit, consistent with the pilot forgetting to secure the portable ladder inside the cockpit. He likely also failed to ensure that the cockpit door was secured before takeoff.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to ensure that the cockpit door was secured before flight, which resulted in its separation during initial climb and a subsequent loss of control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA24FA097
- Event ID
- 20240126193708
- Case number
- ERA24FA097
- 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, coordinates, cause areas. 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: 14846dd35ae6fd5c748159918c2c658354f1d9795278947c0dcf27d5b427561a; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:27:48.841Z.