February 1999 Ameriflight accident
Beech C99 · An Ameriflight accident in February 1999 occurred on 12 February 1999
From Tonopah Airport (TPH) to Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (BIH)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99FA096
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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 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
- N205RA
- Operator
- Ameriflight
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tonopah Airport (TPH), Tonopah, NVTo Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (BIH), Bishop, CA
- 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
- 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
- Maneuvering
- First occurrenceThe 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
From the Wikipedia article
An Ameriflight accident in February 1999 occurred on 12 February 1999. A Beechcraft C99 freighter of the cargo airline Ameriflight crashed during a flight from Tonopah Airport in Nevada to Eastern Sierra Regional Airport in California, killing the only pilot on board. The accident investigation attributed the accident to undisciplined and grossly negligent conduct by the pilot.
Accident sequence
The aircraft departed Tonopah at 09:30; the flight over the 73-mile route to Bishop was to be conducted under visual flight rules. The aircraft was not carrying any cargo at the time of the accident. The aircraft did not arrive at its destination.
Accident investigation
After the accident a search operation was launched and the wreckage was finally found on 14 February on the eastern slopes of White Mountain in the Inyo National Forest at an altitude of 9,500 feet.
A witness stated that they had observed the aircraft flying at an altitude of 7,000 to 8,000 feet as it flew into Trace Plumas Canyon on White Mountain and gradually turned to the left. The aircraft then disappeared from the witness's view. The canyon leads to the accident site. According to Ameriflight, the pilot was due to leave the company, as he had successfully applied for a position as captain of larger aircraft. The flight that day was to be his last along this route. Several acquaintances of the Tonopah-based pilot reported that he had intended to take a camera with him and photograph some scenic places along this route during the flight.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Ameriflight im Februar 1999” (revision 255900650, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
NTSB narrative
The airline transport pilot was repositioning the Beech C99 turboprop cargo hauler on a 73-mile trip without cargo. The pilot had been flying this route for some time and this was his last trip before upgrading to a larger aircraft and route. He told friends that he would take pictures of the scenic parts of the route on his last trip. Three witnesses reported seeing the airplane flying west at low altitude. Two of the witnesses were local ranchers who saw the airplane enter the White Mountains near Trace Plumas Canyon about 7,000 to 8,000 feet msl. White Mountain is 14,246 feet, tapering off north to 13,559 feet and south to 11,285 feet msl. The airplane was reported missing and 2 days later located on White Mountain about 9,400 feet msl. The company flight planned route is 15 miles south of the accident site through Westgard Pass, about 7,291 feet msl. Examination of the low energy impact and the subsequent recovery inspection failed to reveal any mechanical issues.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to follow procedures and directives and his failure to maintain clearance from mountainous terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall der Ameriflight im Februar 1999
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 255900650 · 2025-05-10 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q90500393
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record LAX99FA096
- Event ID
- 20001205X00178
- Case number
- LAX99FA096
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall der Ameriflight im Februar 1999" (page 11241745, revision 255900650), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case LAX99FA096 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record LAX99FA096: events.ev_date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record LAX99FA096
- Map position
- NTSB record LAX99FA096: events decimal coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record LAX99FA096: aircraft; gaps from Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- NTSB record LAX99FA096: operated under Part 91: General Aviation
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities (the NTSB record states no total)
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record LAX99FA096: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "February 1999 Ameriflight accident" and NTSB case LAX99FA096, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this US event the NTSB's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- The date is the UTC date the NTSB stores; the local date may be a day earlier.