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Csi Aviation Beech 300 accident

5 Aug 2025 · Chinle, AZ, United States

Beech 300 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach

From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) to Mesa Gateway Airport (IWA)

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Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.

Event

NTSB case
WPR25FA240
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
Ongoing
API-reported fatalities
4 · 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
Not recorded

Beech 300

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 300
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
N534AW
Operator
Csi Aviation
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route Possible conflict
From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), Albuquerque, NMTo Mesa Gateway Airport (IWA), Phoenix, AZ
Aircraft age
About 37 years (built 1988)
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
Approach · VFR go-around
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
Destroyed

Cause areas

No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

On August 5, 2025, about 1245 mountain daylight time, a Beech 300, N534AW, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Chinle, Arizona. The pilot, co-pilot and two medical crew members were fatally injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 135 positioning flight. Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) data and air traffic control radar data showed that the airplane departed Albuquerque International Sunport Airport (ABQ) Albuquerque, New Mexico about 1155, climbed to 18,000 ft mean sea level (msl) and proceeded direct to Chinle Municipal Airport (E91) Chinle, Arizona. About 1229 the airplane began a descent and about 1239, the airplane entered the traffic pattern on the downwind leg for runway 36. About 1240, while about 6,600 ft, the airplane turned right and entered the base leg. The last radar data point recorded the airplane about 6,100 ft, and about 2.8 miles southeast of the runway 36 threshold. According to a witness, who was located about one quarter mile from the airport, he observed the airplane on a northbound heading over the runway while flying about 180 ft above ground level (agl). The left wing banked erratically multiple times and then leveled off, at which time the airplane pitched up. The left wing then dropped into a knife edge attitude, while the airplane descended to the ground and immediately erupted in flames. The airplane impacted open terrain about 990 ft west of runway 36 at an elevation of about 5,510 ft. A path of disturbed terrain and vegetation extended about 281 ft from the main wreckage and included multiple airframe components. A postaccident fire thermally damaged the fuselage and wings. A cockpit voice recorder was recovered from the airplane and shipped to the NTSB Vehicle Recorders Laboratory for download. The airplane was recovered to a secure facility for further examination.

Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record WPR25FA240
Event ID
20250805200716
Case number
WPR25FA240
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. 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: 960e70ee00171dae8e4e01c91b5ff5a81b1b5d8f5857eb9d7e2d11c1e8f26d63; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:07:44.841Z.