A Beech Model 18 similar to the accident plane. The accident plane was an E18S, while the one in this picture is a C18S. I believe the accident aircraft was fitted with a slightly longer nose than this Model 18 has. (Photo by Itzel Guillen for Velozia Air)

As any test pilot knows, the first flight of an aircraft is a very serious matter.  This not only refers to the aircraft’s first flight as it leaves the factory airport, but also to a pilot’s first flight with an aircraft after purchase or after it has been sitting on the ground for a long time.  This was evident just before 11:45 AM this past Wednesday (August 12, 2009), when two people died while flying for the first time in a 1958 Beechcraft E18S “Twin Beech” (registration N3038C) out of Flying Cloud Airport (FCM) in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

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Pilot and owner of the airplane, Wayne R. Monson and his passenger, student pilot Rivka Chayka-Lev (also known Iryna Chayka), were taking part in the maiden flight of the Twin Beech Monson was restoring when the airplane crashed near the airport.  While the plane had been flown before by various owners, it was the first time Monson was flying the airplane after having purchased it about a year ago for approximately $30,000.  The plane was undergoing a restoration and it was Monson’s goal to eventually base the plane in Eastern Europe, where he hoped his family could use it for travels there.  Chayka-Lev was helping Monson with the restoration.  While she was a student pilot, Monson was not an instructor, so this was not an instructional flight.

According to investigators, the pilot was departing FCM and heading towards L.O. Simenstad Municipal Airport (OEO) in Osceola, Wisconsin to pick up three of his sons and a girlfriend of one of the sons.  Immediately after takeoff, the pilot radioed air traffic control (ATC) and told them that he wanted to do some takeoffs and landings before heading to OEO, but the airplane never made it back to the airport and crashed in front of the Cummins-Grill House, a historic building which was not damaged.  The pilot was attempting to return to the airport at the time of the accident, but it is unclear if it was returning as part of the takeoff and landings it was going to do, or if the return was initiated as part of an emergency.  The plane caught fire on impact.

According to witnesses, the airplane had difficulty taking off before white smoke was seen trailing the left engine and engine sputtering was heard.  As this is an investigation in its initial stages, we do not know if what witnesses claim as difficulty climbing refers to a problem the aircraft may have been undergoing or the typical slower climbing seen from older planes when compared to more modern aircraft.  The white smoke may indicate a problem with the oil system of the engine as it usually indicates an oil leak.  Manson and Chayka-Lev were originally planning on the first flight being two weeks ago, but what is being described as a “fluid leak” made them cancel that flight.  All in all, it seems clear that regardless of what caused it, an engine related failure is behind this accident.

It appears from some of the interviews conducted by media at the airport that this E18S may have been parked at the airport without flying for years.  It would be interesting to know just how many years and what the engine-run history for these past years has been.  Like a lawn mower that has been sitting for months in a garage and then fails to start, aircraft engines do not respond well to extremely long periods of inactivity (and it is one reason as to why there are so many engine failures in relatively inactive airplanes).  This was (at least) Manson’s second Beech Model 18.  His other Model 18 is kept in Alaska.

As I mentioned before, this kind of “first flight” can be a serious issue because of the potential for unknown problems to emerge and known problems to get worse.  Going to Osceola, WI to pick up more passengers would probably not be my first choice of things to do on a plane’s maiden voyage, but judging from what happened here and how quickly after takeoff it appears to have happened, the result may have been the same even if the pilot had elected to just simply do a test flight in the pattern.  Investigators will have to look at the maintenance/restoration history of this plane and see exactly what fluid was leaking from the plane on the attempted flight a few weeks back, as well as what was done to correct the fluid leak.

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