NTSB accident investigators are searching for clues as to what caused the crash of a Hawker Beechcraft Hawker 800 in Minnesota on July 31, killing both pilots and all six passengers aboard. The aircraft, N818MV, operated by Allentown, Pa.-based East Coast Jets as a Part 135 non-scheduled domestic passenger flight, departed from Atlantic City, N.J., and is thought to have been attempting a go-around at Owatonna Degner Regional Airport in southern Minnesota when it struck the airport’s localizer antenna.
NTSB board member Steven Chealander said the aircraft landed on the 5,500-foot Runway 30, and a witness heard the engines spool up again. “We have witness accounts that it did touch down and [the pilot] was trying to land and during the landing rollout for some reason they made a decision to try to take off and get airborne again,” said Chealander. The chartered jet rolled past the end of the runway, and according to the NTSB, indications are that the tire marks in the grass had stopped before the point where the airplane hit the eight-foot-high antenna with its right wing. The twinjet cartwheeled and came to rest in a cornfield, leaving a half-mile-long debris trail. The majority of the fuselage disintegrated, leaving only the tail section relatively intact.
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