King Air Makes Rooftop ‘Landing’

Two on board exited with minor injuries and climbed to earth via fire ladder.

Screenshot of Fox40 news video

A Beech King Air E90 wound up on the roof of a hangar at New Century AirCenter (KIXD) in Johnson County, Kansas, yesterday (June 16). Both occupants, including the 73-year-old pilot, were able to exit the aircraft safely and suffered only minor injuries, according to news reports. The Kansas Highway Patrol provided information suggesting the left engine of the twin turboprop failed while on approach to Runway 18 at KIXD. No one inside the hangar was injured.

According to FlightAware, ADS-B data associated with the King Air first appeared near Butler Memorial Airport (KBUM) about 14 minutes before the accident, which occurred at roughly 1:15 p.m. local time. The aircraft had completed four local flights from Butler of between 40 to 58 minutes each on Saturday and seven more similar flights the previous weekend.

Bryan Johnson, executive director of the Johnson County Airport Commission, said the hangar was one of the newest on the airport at less than three years old. “The good news is the two people that occupied the aircraft sustained minor injuries and were able to exit the aircraft of their own power and down the fire ladder to some paramedics,” he said.

Mark Phelps

Mark Phelps is a senior editor at AVweb. He is an instrument rated private pilot and former owner of a Grumman American AA1B and a V-tail Bonanza.

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Replies: 2

  1. No golfer has ever shot a more improbable and fortuitous hole-in-one. This is one for the record books. Glad the occupants made it down the roof with no major injuries.

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