The National Transportation Safety Board is looking into an accident in which an unidentified object is believed to have smacked into a Beech C-99 flight, shearing off about a one-foot section of the vertical stabilizer and damaging the rudder. The accident occurred at about 6:40 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time on August 1. The aircraft, N234AV, was operated by Ameriflight on a scheduled Part 135 cargo flight from Carbon County Regional Airport (PUC) in Price, Utah, en route to Salt Lake City.
The pilot, who was not injured in the accident, told safety investigators that he was climbing through 8,500 feet near Spanish Fork, Utah, when he “noticed something pass the airplane in his peripheral vision, then felt a ‘thud’ as something struck the airplane,” the NTSB said. The pilot, thinking the event involved a bird strike, elected to continue to Salt Lake City since there was no loss of control or abnormal control feel. Once on the ground, the pilot discovered about 12 inches of the vertical stabilizer was missing and the rudder was substantially damaged.
The initial examination did not show evidence of organic material, NTSB said, but a detailed examination is ongoing. Also the severed part of the stabilizer had not yet been found. Ameriflight said the investigation is in the early stages and “we are looking at all possibilities.”