Four Dead in Crash of Test Flight

Four crewmembers are dead after a Cessna Grand Caravan 208B EX leased to Raisbeck Engineering crashed during a test flight on November 18 in Snohomish County near Everett, Washington. Killed in the crash were two Raisbeck test pilots that each had logged more than 10,000 flight hours, a flight-test director, and an instrumentation engineer.

The flight was collecting baseline aircraft performance data before the installation of a Raisbeck modification. According to FlightAware, the airplane departed from Renton Municipal Airport at 9:24 a.m. local time, and the last data recorded on its flight track was at 10:19 a.m. at an altitude of 9,100 feet and speed of 79 knots.

“All the members of the Raisbeck family are devastated by this tragic accident,” Raisbeck president Hal Chrisman said in a statement. “And while Raisbeck feels this loss deeply, we cannot begin to imagine the loss and pain of the families and other loved ones of these crewmembers.”

The accident airplane, N2069B, is owned by Copper Mountain Aviation, according to FlightAware. The NTSB is investigating and Raisbeck is not identifying those killed in the crash “out of respect for the families,” Chrisman said. “Raisbeck prides itself on a legacy of safety and is committed to cooperating with authorities on the investigation.”