Air Tactical King Air down while battling AZ wildfire

"Land Management personnel told them that they witnessed a wing fall off the plane in the air before it crashed."
A wing came off a King Air?
 
If a wing fell off, just terrible. That was the large bugaboo a few years ago, ‘supposed’ to be better inspections?
 
A1Topgun said:
"Land Management personnel told them that they witnessed a wing fall off the plane in the air before it crashed."
A wing came off a King Air?
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MANY King Airs have had their wings fall off. For a while, we were forced to slow down (AD). Inconel wing bolts every 5 years was the result.

That and Sauders made a lot of King Air wing straps.....so did Beechcraft.

FACT..............It was a great embarrassment to Beech to have their King Air falling apart, they had to fix it. AS an afterthought, they also decided to fix the Bonanza.........of which 350 had their tails rip off. So they FINALLY, kicking and screaming, fixed the Bonanza as well.
 
kgruber said:
MANY King Airs have had their wings fall off. For a while, we were forced to slow down (AD). Inconel wing bolts every 5 years was the result.

That and Sauders made a lot of King Air wing straps.....so did Beechcraft.

FACT..............It was a great embarrassment to Beech to have their King Air falling apart, they had to fix it. AS an afterthought, they also decided to fix the Bonanza.........of which 350 had their tails rip off. So they FINALLY, kicking and screaming, fixed the Bonanza as well.
Click to expand...

Was there a recent fix to the Bonanzas? I know of the one for the V-tails back in the 80's. I wasn't aware of anything more recent.
 
Kristin said:
Was there a recent fix to the Bonanzas? I know of the one for the V-tails back in the 80's. I wasn't aware of anything more recent.
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No. I'm old. The point is that Beech would have never done a fix for the Bonanza without two things that happened. This brought much SHAME on Beechcraft!!

1. King Air wings began falling off. The ultimate solution was to change the wing attach point from one bolt in tension to a bolt in shear (B200). Most of these separations were European, where they salt the runways. Although I personally witnessed a 200 pull into FLightcraft with a broken wing, a MIRACLE they didn't crash. That airplane was covered up and the owners were given a new 300.

2. The President of the Bonanza Society (or something like that) was a hugely vocal supporter of the Bonanza and opinioned that the 350 disintegrations were ALL pilot error. Then HIS tail fell off. Beech RELUCTANTLY fixed the Bonanza. Also, Mike Smith had a fix.
 
kgruber said:
Beech RELUCTANTLY fixed the Bonanza. Also, Mike Smith had a fix.
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I had heard that Beech was pushing the FAA to issue the AD, supposedly so they didn't have to admit that there was a problem. They certainly were reluctant to admit that there was an issue with the V-tail. I ferried a few aircraft into Mike Smith's facility for the tail mod, back before the AD came out.
 
I heard on radio (NPR) that weather might have been a factor??
 
kgruber said:
No. I'm old. The point is that Beech would have never done a fix for the Bonanza without two things that happened. This brought much SHAME on Beechcraft!!

1. King Air wings began falling off. The ultimate solution was to change the wing attach point from one bolt in tension to a bolt in shear (B200). Most of these separations were European, where they salt the runways. Although I personally witnessed a 200 pull into FLightcraft with a broken wing, a MIRACLE they didn't crash. That airplane was covered up and the owners were given a new 300.

2. The President of the Bonanza Society (or something like that) was a hugely vocal supporter of the Bonanza and opinioned that the 350 disintegrations were ALL pilot error. Then HIS tail fell off. Beech RELUCTANTLY fixed the Bonanza. Also, Mike Smith had a fix.
Click to expand...

Regarding your Item #2....I was living in Broken Bow, NE in 1984. On a Sunday, as I recall, I was towing a boat from a lake back to Broken Bow. A huge roll cloud was ahead and like everyone else on that highway, I pulled over. It was a monster and I was glad I was in a car and glad I was not flying thru THAT. Later that evening I heard that there had been a plane crash near Broken Bow. To cut to the chase, it had to be the crash you mentioned. A man and woman and two unrelated kids in a C MOdel BO. I shared my hangar with that wreck from quite some time, as they did not find the engine for many months. I talked with some official about the wreck and he said the pilot was some sort of officer in the ABS. He also said that the plane had almost every mod you could buy. I owned a G Model BO at that time. The wreck was about the size of a Datsun pickup if you remember those. I ended up with the cuffs on my plane but that roll cloud would have torn the wings off first. The engine was some miles away from the wreckage. I have owned the G Model and a V35B. They are fine aircraft.
 
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