Beech 58 accident near Bishop, CA
On July 17, 2004, a Beech 58 (airplane) was involved in an accident near Bishop, CA. 3 people died. Damage to the aircraft: destroyed.
- Date
- July 17, 2004
- Place
- Bishop, CA
- Aircraft
- Beech 58 · Airplane
- Injuries
- 3 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Position
- 37.138°N, 118.643°W
- NTSB ID
- 20040723X01052
NTSB summary
1.1 HISTORY OF FLIGHT On July 17, 2004, at an undetermined time after 0830 Pacific daylight time, a Beech 58, N807Q, impacted a glacier at an approximate elevation of 12,270 feet mean sea level (msl) about 17 nautical miles southwest of Bishop, California. The pilot was operating the airplane, registered to a private company, under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91. The commercial pilot and two passengers sustained fatal injuries; the airplane was destroyed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed along the general route of flight; however, low level clouds were reported in the mountains. The planned route of flight was from Eastern Sierra Regional Airport, Bishop, to Paso Robles Municipal Airport, Paso Robles, California; the flight departed Bishop at 0815. The flight was scheduled to terminate at Sacramento, California. The airplane became a subject of an Alert Notice (ALNOT) when the pilot's family notified authorities that the flight had not reached Paso Robles the evening of July 17. At 2235, local authorities initiated a search of the airports that the pilot intended to land. The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) received the first emergency locator transmitter (ELT) beacon signal by satellite at 1956. The accident site was located on July 18. A radar plot of the accident airplane's presumed flight track to Bishop, provided by to the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), indicated that the radar track proceeded in a direct line to Bishop and maintained a continuous climb until the last radar return about 11,500 feet msl at 0711, in surrounding terrain that rose to abou
Probable cause
the pilot's continued VFR flight into marginal weather conditions with lowering ceilings in a box canyon in mountainous terrain, and his subsequent inability to maintain an adequate airspeed while maneuvering to reverse direction, which led to an accelerated stall and spin.
More accidents in CA
- Douglas MD-83, Feb 1, 2000
- Mcdonnell Douglas DC-9-32, Aug 31, 1986
- British Aerospace BAE-146-200, Dec 8, 1987
- Beech C-99, Aug 24, 1984
- Sikorsky S-61N, Aug 6, 2008
Browse: California · 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.
