Date:	Saturday 28 December 1991
Time:	21:46
Type:	Beechcraft 1900C
Owner/operator:	Delta Connection
Registration:	N811BE
MSN:	UB-49
Year of manufacture:	1985
Total airframe hrs:	11265 hours
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-65B
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	17 km ENE off Block Island, RI -   United States of America
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	Bridgeport-Igor I. Sikorsky Memorial Airport, CT (BDR/KBDR)
Destination airport:	Bridgeport-Igor I. Sikorsky Memorial Airport, CT (BDR/KBDR)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
Two co-pilots were preparing for an upgrade flight. The instructor disabled the student's attitude indicator and an engine failure was simulated in the procedure turn for an instrument approach. The student became disoriented and asked the instructor to take control, which he refused. The aircraft later struck the sea.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The instructor pilot's loss of altitude awareness and possible spatial disorientation, which resulted in the loss of control of the airplane at an altitude too low for recovery; and company management's lack of involvement in and oversight of its Beechcraft 1900 flight training program. Contributing to the accident was the instructor pilot's exercise of poor judgment in establishing a flight situation and airplane configuration conducive to spatial disorientation that afforded the pilots little or no margin for error."
The ALPA did not agree with the probable cause adopter by the NTSB. In a 1997 ALPA petition they claim that a whirl mode flutter was induced to the right engine and propeller assembly, due to pre-existing right engine truss tube failures. This whirl mode flutter caused a catastrophic failure within the truss mount system. This failure allowed the right engine and nacelle to depart the right wing. The right engine struck and removed the right horizontal stabilizer. The propeller probably damaged the left horizontal stabilizer. The aircraft then pitched over violently and instantly and crashed.

Aircraft Damage Detection From Acoustic Signals Found By A Cockpit Voice Recorder / Ronald O. Stearman et al
Air Safety Week 3 May 1993 (p. 3)
ICAO Adrep Summary 4/94 (#14)
Petition for Reconsideration of Probable Cause, N811BE (The Investigation Process Research Resource Site)

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

6 April 1987	N811BE	Business Express Airlines	0	Boston-Logan International Airport, MA (BOS)		sub
Damaged on the ground

photo (c) Aviation Safety Network

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