Beechcraft 58 N585CK

Summary

On 9 January 2022 at about 01:19 local time, a Beechcraft 58 registered N585CK, operated by Airnet II LLC, was involved in an accident near Defiance, Missouri, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

9 January 2022 at 01:19

Classification

Accident

Location

Defiance, Missouri, United States

Coordinates

38.6795, -90.8824

Aircraft

Beechcraft 58

Registration

N585CK

Category

Airplane

Year built

1981

Engines

2

Operator

Airnet II LLC

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Positioning

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

St Louis → Denver

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

IMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

CEN22FA096

2 people died.

The pilot’s loss of airplane control while flying in night instrument conditions due to spatial disorientation and the flight crew’s inability to recover from an unusual airplane attitude.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The commercial pilots departed during night, instrument conditions on a positioning flight. After leveling off at 8,000 ft mean sea level with moderate turbulence conditions likely, the airplane slowly turned left from a west to southeast heading. The airplane continued turning left and entered a rapid descent until terrain impact. The airplane was destroyed when it impacted terrain. Examination revealed no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Although the pilot and copilot were both instrument current, their flying experience predominantly involved visual flight rules operations. The pilot in command (PIC) did not have the required experience to operate as PIC on Part 135 flights and was the PIC of this Part 91 positioning flight to gain experience. Immediately before the accident flight, the pilot communicated to her boyfriend that she had concerns about the flight due to the weather, along with her and the copilot’s instrument flying skills. The pilot likely became spatially disoriented during night instrument conditions that included moderate turbulence. Because of the airplane’s single set of flight instruments and “throwover yoke” control column, which required pulling a T-handle latch on the back of the control arm to change the yoke from one side of the cockpit to the other, the copilot likely wasn’t able to assume control of the airplane. As a result, the copilot wasn’t able to recover control of the airplane from its unusual attitude before impact with terrain.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.