The final week of October 2014 was a poignant time for aviators in the Sunflower State. On Halloween, many of them gathered to mourn Mark Goldstein, the pilot who was killed when his Beechcraft B200 Super King Air crashed into a training building near the Wichita-Mid-Continent Airport shortly after takeoff. According to a report by the Aviation Safety Network, the cause of the crash was presumably pilot error, not a malfunction of the aircraft itself. At the time of this writing, the NTSB has not released their final findings. The accident was tragic, and we offer condolences to the families of the victims. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the King Air safety record is quite remarkable.
John Eakin is a licensed aircraft mechanic, commercial pilot and the owner of Air Data Research. When interviewed by The Wichita Eagle after the crash, Eakin said,
“It’s a pretty rugged airplane, has good performance. It’s a good, solid engine that’s been around forever. A lot of airplanes are known for problems. The King Air isn’t known for anything bad.”
The first King Air plane was delivered in the mid 1960s. Since that time, more than 7,000 KingAir planes have been built. In total, the King Air fleet has logged in excess of 40 million flight hours with exponentially fewer accidents than any other twin-engine aircraft in its class. According to stats published by Aviation International News, King Air 100, 200 and 300 aircraft operated by a single pilot were involved in far fewer accidents than other turbo prop twin-engine planes.
When the first KingAir 350 entered service in 1990, she was touted as being the best in class as far as business planes were concerned. Since that time, no KingAir 350 has been involved in a reported accident. With a cabin some three feet longer than the previous model 100 and a 1,600+ pound payload, the KingAir 350 provides plenty of room to stretch ones legs while enjoying all the perqs of private flight.