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Atlas / NTSB / CHI92LA021

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CHI92LA021

1991-11-01 BEMIDJI, Minnesota, United States Airport · BJI Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PLANNING AND PREPARATION BY THE PILOT IN COMMAND, THE NON PERFORMANCE O FAN EMERGENCY PROCEDURE AND NOT MAINTAINING A POSITIVE RATE OF CLIMB ON BEHALF OF THE PILOT IN COMMAND. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S NOT REMOVING ICE FROM THE AIRPLANE, NOT OBTAINING ALTITUDE DURING THE CLIMB, AND NOT MAINTAINING DIRECTIONAL CONTROL.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT OF A SINGLE ENGINED AIRPLANE HAD JUST RECEIVED AN IFR CLEARANCE. THE AIRPLANE PERFORMED AN INTERSECTION TAKEOFF AT NIGHT WITH WINDS GUSTING TO 30 KNOTS AND BLOWING SNOW. JUST PRIOR TO ROTATION THE PILOT STATED HE OBSERVED THE AIRSPEED INDICATOR DISPLAYING '0'. HE DECIDED TO TAKEOFF BECAUSE HE BELIEVED INSUFFICIENT RUNWAY REMAINED FOR AN ABORTED TAKEOFF. AFTER TAKEOFF THE PILOT STATED HIS OTHER PRESSURE INSTRUMENTS WERE NOT FUNCTIONING PROPERLY. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREE AND TERRAIN APPROXIMATELY 2 MILES FROM THE AIRPORT'S CENTER. THE ON SCENE INVESTIGATION REVEALED A SLIGHT TRACE OF ICE WAS ON THE WINGS LEADING EDGE. ONE OF THE TWO STATIC PORTS WAS FOUND WITH ICE BLOCKING IT. THE SECOND STATIC PORT WAS DESTROYED DURING THE CRASH SEQUENCE. THE ALTERNATE STATIC SOURCE SWITCH WAS FOUND IN THE 'STANDBY' POSITION. THE PILOT STATED, 'I FIGURED I COULD USE THE ALTERNATE STATIC SOURCE ONCE I WAS UP HIGH ENOUGH TO CLEAR THE TREES.' Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1991_CHI92LA021.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type. Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗