Cessna401

At approximately 1630 Central time, the airplane was substantially damaged upon impact with terrain. The commercial pilot and three passengers were fatally injured. One passenger was seriously injured. Visual conditions prevailed; the flight operated on an IFR flight plan with an airport in Iowa as its destination.

At 07:51 EDT, a Cessna 401B crashed after an aborted takeoff at Essex County Airport. Three passengers were seriously injured; the pilot and four passengers also received minor injuries. The pilot said the initial takeoff roll was uneventful, and that he planned rotation at 105 mph indicated. However, the airplane accelerated to about 80 mph and then did not appear to accelerate further. About two-thirds of the way down the runway, he decided to abort the takeoff. The airplane skidded off the right side of the runway near the departure end, continued over a berm, and dropped into a ravine. When the airplane was lifted out of the ravine, the pitot covers were found still on the pitot tubes an…

At 18:50 eastern time, a Cessna 401A suffered an in-flight fire during cruise flight, but the pilot made a safe landing. No one was injured. The airplane was at 6,000 feet with the combustion heater on when the pilot heard an explosion. Smoke then entered the cabin and the airplane lost all electrical power. The pilot did not declare an emergency and landed without incident at Eastern West Virginia Regional/Shepard Airport. The airplane had a total time of 5,231 hours and the combustion heater was subject to an AD for inspections every 250 hours and overhauls every 1,000 hours. The heater had been rebuilt about 1,300 flight hours earlier, but the heaters Hobbs meter was destroyed and the ti…