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CHI99LA037

1998-11-23 · CRYSTAL, Minnesota, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport MIC

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

the pilot failed to maintain the proper glidepath. A factor was the sunglare.

Factual narrative

On November 23, 1998, at 1615 central standard time, a Beech Baron BE-55, N5638S, was substantially damaged during landing. The airplane was on a VFR approach to runway 24R at Crystal Airport, Crystal, Minnesota, when it hit the top of trees and impacted the ground on final approach. The commercial pilot was seriously injured. The 14 CFR Part 91 flight departed Crystal Airport for a local flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The pilot reported that, "Shortly after turning final I became completely blinded by the low setting sun. I unknowingly lost altitude that put me below the tree tops. This resulted in complete loss of control. The airplane contacted several trees and crashed coming to rest in a drainage ditch... ." The pilot reported that, 'Shortly after turning final I became completely blinded by the low setting sun. I unknowingly lost altitude that put me below the tree tops. This resulted in complete loss of control. The airplane contacted several trees and crashed coming to rest in a drainage ditch... .' Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1998_CHI99LA037.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). All research papers