Description

On 6 February 2007, a Beech 200C Super King Air being operated by a small locally-based airline on a passenger flight from North Caicos to Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands, British West Indies crashed into a shallow lagoon 1nm south east of the departure airport soon after a dark night take off in Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC). The single pilot was fatally injured as a result of the accident whilst four out of the five passengers received serious injuries and the other, seated at the back of the aircraft, received only minor injuries.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out in accordance with Annex 13 principles by a local team appointed by the Turks and Caicos Civil Aviation Department which, under the terms of a pre-existing Memorandum of Understanding, included two UK AAIB Inspectors. No Flight Data Recorder (FDR) or Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) was required to be fitted to the accident aircraft and a CVR which had remained in the aircraft since acquisition from a previous owner and was recovered was found not to be in working order.

It was established that although the aircraft was principally used by the Operator to provide scheduled passenger services within the Islands, in the case of the accident flight, it was transporting a private party free of charge and so was considered by the Operator to be a private flight. A public transport flight at night would have required two pilots and upon examination of the locally applicable regulations, it was found that the flight had, in fact, been a public transport flight.