Beech 1900D accident near Charlotte, NC
On January 8, 2003, a Beech 1900D (airplane) was involved in an accident near Charlotte, NC. 21 people died. Damage to the aircraft: destroyed.
- Date
- January 8, 2003
- Place
- Charlotte, NC
- Aircraft
- Beech 1900D · Airplane
- Injuries
- 21 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Position
- 35.231°N, 80.839°W
- NTSB ID
- 20030110X00049
Official records · DCA03MA022
- Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
- Investigation page: status, final report and safety recommendations
Air traffic control records
- ATC 3 - Factual Report of Group Chairman: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
- ATC 3 - Attachment 1: Document (TXT), on ntsb.gov
- ATC 3 - Addendum 1 FAA Air Traffic Package: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
- Airports/ARFF 16 - Attachment 2 - Charlotte Fire Department Radio Transmission Log for Accident: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
NTSB summary
The Safety Board's full report is avialable at http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/publictn.htm. The Aircraft Accident Report number is NTSB/AAR-04/01. On January 8, 2003, about 0847:28 eastern standard time, Air Midwest (doing business as US Airways Express) flight 5481, a Raytheon (Beechcraft) 1900D, N233YV, crashed shortly after takeoff from runway 18R at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, North Carolina. The 2 flight crewmembers and 19 passengers aboard the airplane were killed, 1 person on the ground received minor injuries, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a postcrash fire. Flight 5481 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP), Greer, South Carolina, and was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 on an instrument flight rules flight plan. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The accident airplane had been flown from the Tri-State/Milton J. Ferguson Field, Huntington, West Virginia (HTS), to CLT on January 7, 2003 (the day before the accident). Air Midwest records indicated that the accident pilots flew the accident airplane on six flight legs that day. The first officer (the nonflying pilot) of the flight from HTS to CLT told the accident first officer, when handing off the airplane, that "everything was normal" and "it was a good flying airplane." The accident pilots began their trip sequence about 1340 and ended their trip sequence at CLT about 2045. Another flight crew met the accident airplane for a trip th
Probable cause
the airplane's loss of pitch control during take-off. The loss of pitch control resulted from the incorrect rigging of the elevator system compounded by the airplane's aft center of gravity, which was substaintially aft of the certified aft limit. Contributing to the cause of the accident were (1) Air Midwest's lack of oversight of the work being performed at the Huntington, West Virginia, mainten
From Wikipedia
Air Midwest Flight 5481 was a Beechcraft 1900D which crashed upon takeoff while on a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Greenville–Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, South Carolina. On the morning of January 8, 2003, the Beechcraft stalled while departing the airport and crashed into an aircraft hangar, killing all 21 passengers and crew aboard and injuring one person on the ground.
Text from Wikipedia, “Air Midwest Flight 5481”, CC BY-SA 4.0; shortened to the introduction. Authors.
More accidents in NC
- Douglas DC-9-31, Jul 2, 1994
- Pilatus Aircraft Ltd PC-12/47E, Feb 13, 2022
- Cessna 550, Dec 18, 2025
- Beech D55, Jan 9, 1983
- Raytheon Aircraft Company C90A, Feb 1, 2008
Browse: North Carolina · Beech aircraft
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
