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Atlas / NTSB / LAX98IA096

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX98IA096

1998-02-23 RENO, Nevada, United States None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N236CP

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

BEECH B100

Year of manufacture

1976 · 22 years old at event

Engine

AIRESEARCH TPE331-5&6SER (776 hp)

Seats / Engines

11 seats · 2 engines

Last airworthiness date

19960503

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A21F0A

Registrant of record

ARTIC LEGACY AVIATION LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

Ice formation around the elevator control cables due to plugged limbers and a water drain hole.

Factual narrative

On February 23, 1998, at 0601 hours Pacific standard time, the pilot of a Beech 100, N236CP, declared an emergency due to no elevator control. The pilot returned to his departure point, made a low approach, and then landed safely at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport, Reno, Nevada, with no aircraft damage or injury to the solo airline transport pilot. The flight departed from Reno-Tahoe International and was being operated as an on-demand air charter. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time and a company flight plan had been filed. During a postflight inspection, ice was observed in the tail section of the fuselage in an area that surrounds the elevator control cables. The "limber" holes that allow water drainage from section to section in the lower fuselage structure were found plugged with fibers from abraded cargo packages. Also, the dorsal fin drain hole for the entire compartment was found plugged with the same material. (See sketch in Section 10.00 of this report.) Pilot encountered restricted elevator control in-flight and completed an uneventful precautionary landing. During a postflight inspection, ice was found in the tail section of the aircraft which restricted the elevator control cables. The water drain and limber holes for this compartment were found plugged with debris. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1998_LAX98IA096.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 ↗