Event WPR26FA040

Factual narrative

On November 10, 2025, about 1019 eastern standard time, a Beech King Air B100, N30HG, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Coral Springs, Florida. The pilot and passenger were fatally injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. The flight was intended to transport relief supplies to Jamaica following a hurricane that occurred there in late October. It was to be a round-trip flight, departing from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and returning the same day. At 0913, a local church group arrived at the airplane on the ramp at FXE with the supplies, which included a generator and multiple boxes of tarpaulins, electric tools, screws, and flashlights. They had been told in advance by the pilot that he could take about 1,000 lbs of cargo; however, upon arrival they noticed that he had already loaded about 200 lbs of equipment into the airplane behind the pilot’s seat. The group began to pass the cargo in through the rear door, while the pilot arranged it within the cabin. The generator (which did not contain fuel) was loaded in the aft baggage compartment and secured to the airframe with webbing. The remaining cargo was placed by the pilot on the cabin seats and their footwells. The cargo was not weighed; however, the pilot checked the weight documented on each box as the airplane was loaded, and he finished the loading process once he determined that capacity had been reached. There was cargo left over, and it was decided that this could be taken on another flight. Review of a photo taken after completion showed that the center aisle of the cabin was clear and that the cargo was loaded unsecured throughout the cabin on passenger seats. The airplane was then filled to capacity with the addition of 282 gallons of Jet-A fuel. Preliminary ADS-B data indicated that after taxi, the airplane departed from Runway 27 at 1014:26. Over the 3 ½-minute takeoff and climb, the airplane initiated a climbing right turn to the northwest at an average climb rate of about 1,000 fpm, with vertical speed variations between 0 and 2,800 fpm, until the airplane leveled off at 4,000 ft msl. The pilot was then instructed by air traffic control to initiate a right turn to a heading of 120°, and the pilot acknowledged. The airplane began a turn to the right at an airspeed of about 150 kts, and about 25 seconds later the heading was amended to 090°, which the pilot again acknowledged. By the time the airplane reached the 090° heading, it had accelerated to 200 kts and was starting to descend. A few seconds later, the controller instructed the pilot to continue the turn to a 120° heading, but by this time the airplane had already descended to about 3,100 ft. With no response from the pilot, the controller transmitted, “November zero hotel golf, climbing?” Heavy breathing and “grunting” sounds could then be heard, and by that time the airplane had descended to about 1,500 ft and reached an airspeed of about 270 kts. The last ADS-B target was recorded a few seconds later, about 200 ft west and 350 ft above the impact location. A series of security cameras captured the final seconds of the flight. Two cameras were facing north toward a small pond surrounded by houses in a residential neighborhood 7 miles north-northwest of FXE. Both cameras were about 250 ft south of the accident site and facing north. The cameras captured two frames of the airplane coming into view in the top left, in a steep nose-down attitude, before striking the water. Another set of cameras, located about 400 ft east of the accident site and facing northwest, did not capture the impact but captured the airplane as it approached from the west. Both showed the airplane emerging from clouds and passing right to left in a nose-down attitude before striking the pond about 3 seconds later. The airplane was not trailing smoke or vapors in any of the recordings, all of which captured the sound of engines operating. Preliminary review of GOES-19 satellite imagery depicted a band of cumulus clouds associated with a cold front, moving southeastward and extending over the accident area at the time of the accident. ADS-B data indicated that the airplane entered that band of clouds after takeoff and remained within the clouds during the turn to the east until it began to descend (see figure 1). Figure 1 - GOES-19 visible image for 1020 EST with final airplane position in yellow. The cold front is also depicted in blue at 1000. Figure 2 - KAMX WSR-88D 0.44 base reflectivity image with flight track overlaid in purple. A band of echoes from 5 to 20 dBZ extends over the flight track. The airplane struck the western shore of the pond in a right-wing-low, 45-degree nose-down attitude. The airplane was heavily fragmented on impact, with the largest recovered component being the empennage which included the vertical stabilizer/rudder assembly along with fragments of the horizontal stabilizer. The remaining recovered components were comprised of fragmented wing and fuselage segments and sections of both engines and propeller assemblies, all of which were retained for further examination. The pilot purchased the airplane in February 2024, and in June of that year it underwent a complete interior furnishings and avionics suite upgrade. Avionics systems installed included a Garmin G600 TXi touchscreen display, GTN 750 Xi GPS/NAV/COMM/Multifunction Device, GI 275 standby attitude indicator, GTX 345 transponder, and an S-TEC 3100 Digital Flight Control System with new roll, pitch, and yaw servos. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12