2017 Essendon Airport Beechcraft King Air crash
Corporate and Leisure Charters Beechcraft B200 King Air · Loss of control during initial climb
From Melbourne Essendon Airport (MEB) to King Island Airport (KNS)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's date. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17RA106
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 5 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 5
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 2 · all on the ground
- 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
Beechcraft B200 King Air
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 200
- 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
- VH-ZCR
- Operator
- Corporate and Leisure Charters
- Onboard fatalities
- 5
- Route
- From Melbourne Essendon Airport (MEB)To King Island Airport (KNS)
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Organizational issues › Development
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 21 February 2017, at 8:59 am local time, a Beechcraft B200 King Air aircraft operating a charter flight, carrying a pilot and four passengers bound for King Island, crashed seconds after taking off from Essendon Airport in Melbourne, Australia.
Four American passengers and the Australian pilot died in the crash.
Accident
The pilot made two mayday calls before the aircraft clipped the roof of a building housing the DFO Essendon. The aircraft then impacted the ground a few metres away and ignited, starting a fire. The DFO complex, located on the airport grounds, had not yet begun the day's trading. All five people on board were killed in the crash, including the four passengers who were American tourists on their way to King Island to play golf. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said it was the worst civil aviation accident in Victoria in 30 years.
Media sources reported that the aircraft crashed as a result of an engine failure on take-off.
Some local residents and aviation groups have stated that the crash shows buildings have been constructed too close to the airport.
The official investigation's initial findings include that there were no pre-existing aircraft faults, that the pilot made a mayday call, that the voice recorder failed, and that witnesses said the take-off took "longer than normal". Engine tear-downs show that both powerplants were free to rotate and both propellers showed evidence of rotation, although only the left propeller left slash damage to the building roof. Further findings would be made public as the investigation was concluded.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
An investigation by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau determined the accident was a result of one of the flight control trim tabs being set incorrectly. Failure of the pilot to realise the rudder trim was set fully to the left caused a longer than normal takeoff and caused the aircraft to slip and yaw to the left once airborne. Ultimately the uncorrected configuration caused a loss of control of the aircraft. The checklist used by the pilot did not contain a specific check for the trim tab position before takeoff. The investigation was hindered by the lack of data from the cockpit voice recorder, which had stopped working on a previous flight. Furthermore, the weight of the aircraft at takeoff exceeded its maximum takeoff weight, but this factor was not determined to be a contributing factor to the crash.
In September 2021, it was reported that the pilot failed a proficiency test two years prior to the crash.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2017 Essendon Airport Beechcraft King Air crash” (revision 1357834424, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On February 20, 2017, at 2159 hours universal coordinated time (0859 hours Australian eastern daylight time on February 21, 2017), a Raytheon model B200 (King Air) airplane, Australian registration VH-ZCR, impacted a building and roadway shortly after takeoff from runway 17 (4,934 feet by 148 feet, asphalt) at Melbourne/Essendon Airport (YMEN), Victoria, Australia. A post-impact fire ensued. The pilot and four passengers were fatally injured. The airplane was destroyed. The intended destination was the King Island Airport (YKII), Currie, Tasmania, Australia.The accident investigation is under the jurisdiction of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. This report is for informational purposes only and contains information released by or obtained from the government Australia.
Further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
Australian Transport Safety Bureau PO Box 967 Civic Square ACT 2608
Tel: +61 2 6257 4150 Website: http://www.atsb.gov.au Email: atsbinfo@atsb.gov.au
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2017 Essendon Airport Beechcraft King Air crash
- Revision
- 1357834424 · 2026-06-04 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q28810540
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record CEN17RA106
- Event ID
- 20170221X43832
- Case number
- CEN17RA106
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2017 Essendon Airport Beechcraft King Air crash" (page 53255088, revision 1357834424); merged with NTSB case CEN17RA106 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record CEN17RA106
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A King Air carrying tourists on a charter flight: a small charter operation. The article: "a Beechcraft B200 King Air aircraft operating a charter flight, carrying a pilot and four passengers bound for King Island"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (4)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2017 Essendon Airport Beechcraft King Air crash" and NTSB case CEN17RA106, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- The NTSB record dates it 2017-02-20 and the Wikipedia article 2017-02-21; Wikipedia's date is used.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure. The narrative states the airplane took off from Melbourne/Essendon Airport (YMEN); YMEB is not Essendon's code.