Witnesses Recall Details of Wichita Crash
One witness watched the crash from 20 yards away

Witnesses to the October 30 crash of a King Air 200 just after liftoff from Wichita Mid-Continent Airport noticed a number of details that could be important in determining the cause. The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report, issued last week, quoted one eyewitness about 20 yards away from the scene as saying that the aircraft never climbed higher than 150 feet, while another said “the airplane was in a left turn and approached the hangars east of FSI [FlightSafety International’s Citation Learning Center], then [rolled to] wings level as it flew west toward FSI. The airplane’s landing gear was down…the flaps were extended, the rudder was neutral and the right engine was at full power.” Engine-out training typically calls for application of opposite rudder [right rudder in this example] to attempt to control an aircraft with one engine inoperative. The pilot and three people inside the FlightSafety building died in the accident and six others on the ground were injured, two of them seriously.