Accident Overview
On October 25, 2002, at approximately 1022 central daylight time, a Raytheon (Beechcraft) King Air A100, registration N41BE, operated by Aviation Charter, Inc., crashed while the flight crew was executing the VOR approach to runway 27 at Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport in Eveleth, Minnesota. The crash site was located about 1.8 nautical miles southeast of the approach end of runway 27. The two pilots and six passengers were killed, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a post-crash fire.
Flight Details
The aircraft was operating under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 135 as an on-demand passenger charter flight. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed, and the flight operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan. Among the passengers were Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, his wife Sheila, and one of their children, Marcia.
Official Findings
The National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause of the accident to be the flight crew's failure to maintain adequate airspeed, which led to an aerodynamic stall from which they did not recover.