N95GK

On February 14, 2024, about 1410 central standard time, a Beech 400A airplane, N95GK, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident in Bentonville, Arkansas. The two pilots and five passengers were not injured and two passengers had minor injuries. The airplane was operated under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a business flight.

The pilot reported that, while on takeoff from the Bentonville Municipal Airport (VBT), Bentonville, Arkansas, he pulled the airplane’s control yoke aft to rotate for liftoff and the airplane pitched up as expected and the wheels lifted off the ground. He stated the nose of the airplane dropped a little and he added more backpressure on the yoke. When he applied backpressure, he felt a “snap” and there was no longer tension on the controls. The airplane pitched down, and the airplane settled back to the runway. The pilot applied maximum braking and full thrust reverse; however, the airplane continued off the end of the runway. The pilot stated there was a gas station in front of them, so he applied left rudder and brake to turn the airplane with hope that the gear would collapse, and the airplane would come to a stop. Substantial damage was sustained to the right wing.

FAA inspectors responded to the accident site and conducted a visual examination of the airplane and the flight controls. The elevator control cable was found separated near the vertical stabilizer.

The elevator control cables, pulley, guard pins, and wire fragments were sent to the NTSB Materials Laboratory for further examination. The separated elevator control cable was fractured near the aft end of the fuselage where the cable transitioned from a horizontal to a vertical orientation at a pulley assembly bracket. The surface of the pulley contained several isolated wire fragments. The elevator cable was covered in grease, including wires at the fractured ends. The cable ends on each side of the fracture were bent with a similar radius on each side. Many wires were displaced from the strands on both sides of the fracture, and many of the displaced wires were also bent back away from the fractured ends. A close-view examination of the fractured cable ends found external wear on the side of the cable facing the inside radius on the bend adjacent the fracture. Nearly all the wires of the cable had damage consistent with rubbing around the sides of the wires near the fracture. The fractures had rough features consistent with overstress fracture. Examination of the guard pins found that the upper guard pin was missing most of its cadmium plating. The middle portion of the upper guard pin had a rubbed surface appearance. The side walls on either side of the split line were worn with material missing to form a shallow depression. The rubbed areas had scratch marks and gouges in various orientations with the greatest density located near the middle of the pin on either side of the split line. The geometry of the marks and gouges appeared consistent with contact with splayed wires from the fractured control cable.

A postaccident review of the maintenance logbook entries found that both the Up and Down elevator cables were replaced on January 31, 2023, at an airframe total time of 10,745.9 hours. The airplane subsequently flew about 316.5 hours before the cable separated.