Beechcraft 90 King Air

The twin engine airplane departed Ankara-Esenboğa Airport on a flight to Istanbul with three passengers and one pilot on board, among the operator's President. Few minutes after takeoff, while flying in poor weather conditions due to snow falls, the aircraft went out of control and crashed in a field located in Güdül, about 65 km west of Ankara-Esenboğa Airport. All four occupants were killed.

The pilot requested and received clearance to execute the SDF approach, and was instructed to maintain 4,000 feet until established on the approach. Radar data revealed the airplane was never established on the approach, and started to descend before reaching the IAF. The airplane passed the IAF at 2,900 feet, and continued in a descending left hand turn into unprotected airspace. The airplane disappeared from radar at 1,900 feet, as it completed 180 degrees of turn. The turn did not match any of the four instrument approaches to the airport. The airplane struck a guy wire on a lighted communications antenna 3.3 MN southeast of the airport on a heading of 360 degrees. No evidence of a mechanical failure or malfunction of the airplane or its systems was found. A flight check by the FAA confirmed no navigation signal was received for the approach, which had been turned off and listed as out of service for over 4 years. In addition, the pilot did not report the lack of a navigation signal to ATC or execute a missed approach. Interviews disclosed the ATC controller failed to verify the approach was in service before issuing the approach clearance.

The PIC was cleared for an ASR approach to the destination airport. The co-pilot was looking outside to obtain a visual reference on the destination airport. They broke out of the clouds at about 900 feet, and were descending at about 480 feet per minute. The ceiling was overcast, ragged, and very dark with no visible horizon. The co-pilot looked back inside the cockpit to check the radios when he heard a thump. The PIC had continued the descent below the minimum descent altitude, the airplane collided with the marsh and crashed.

The crew departed Melle-Grönegau Airport at 0736LT on a charter flight to Poznań, carrying four passengers and two pilots. While descending to Poznań at an altitude of 7,000 feet, the crew was informed about weather conditions at destination with a visibility of 700 metres, an RVR of 650 metres and a ceiling at 200 feet. After being cleared to descent to runway 29, the crew was informed about local patches of fog at the airport and the RVR dropped to 350 metres. On short final, at a height of about 500 feet, as the crew was unable to establish any visual contact with the approach lights and the runway lights, the captain decided to initiate a go-around procedure. Shortly later, the aircraft struck the ground to the left of the runway. Upon impact, the undercarriage were torn off. The aircraft slid for about 150 metres and came to rest with both engines and the left wing torn of as well. All six occupants escaped uninjured.

At 0314, the pilot reported to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) Tower that he wanted to divert from his destination to land at a closer airport, and was cleared for a visual approach. At 0325, the pilot issued a "Mayday." On final approach the airplane struck a building and wires about 1/2 mile short of the runway. Witnesses that saw the airplane just before impact said that the airplane was low, there was no in-flight fire, and the engine sounds "...appeared to be a fluttering sound as if air [was] passing through the propeller." The pilot had filed for a cruise altitude of 15,000 feet, with a time en route of 5 hours, and fuel on board 6 hours. Weight and balance calculations showed that the pilot was operating about 722 pounds above the maximum gross weight for the takeoff, climb, and maximum cruise power settings. The Pilot Operating Handbook calculations showed that most of the fuel would have been used during the flight. The engine and propeller examinations revealed that both engines were not producing power at impact (windmilling). There were no discrepancies found with the engines or propellers. Examination of the propellers revealed that they were not in the feather position and they were not in beta/reverse position. Line personnel at the departure airport confirmed that all the tanks were topped off (282 gallons added). It took the flight 32 minutes to reach a cruise altitude of 15,000 feet, which calculated to about 293.3 pounds (1 gallon of Jet "A" equals 6.7 pounds), and a flight time of 4.9 hours from takeoff to impact. Sample calculations indicated that the fuel burn rate would have caused the airplane to use 2,649.3 pounds of Jet "A" turbine fuel during the flight. The flight departed with all tanks full 384 gallons usable (2,572.8 pounds), which calculates to insufficient fuel for the completion of the flight. Two gallons of fuel was drained from the right nacelle tank at the crash site, and there was no evidence of in-flight leakage. The sample calculations do not consider performance degradation for operating the airplane above the maximum allowable gross weight, which would cause the fuel consumption to go up because more power was required for the overweight conditions. The pilot's flight plan was for economy cruise, plus the airplane was over gross weight at takeoff, and there are no performance charts for that condition. So, the performance was even poorer than shown on the maximum power chart for climb and cruise. Calculations of the maximum allowable fuel that could be on board the aircraft showed that only 1851 pounds of turbine fuel could be carried to start the flight at the maximum allowable weight, or about 3.2 hours of flight. The en route winds aloft at the airplane's altitude indicated a slight tailwind for half the flight and a headwind of about 15 knots for the remainder of the flight.