Beechcraft King Air 300/350/360

The King Air 350 carries more people and flies faster than the King Air 200, and its record is unusual in one way: none of its counted fatal events was a passenger charter flight. Most were private, company, ambulance or government work. In the family's whole history up to 3 November 2026, our data lists 31 fatal events for the 300, 350 and 360, and 11 count toward the score, which covers accidents and flights from 2008 on.

What is the King Air 350 used for?

The 300 first flew in 1983, the stretched 350 followed, and the 360 is in production today. About 1,750 have been built and about 1,200 are in service, with about 2.7 million flights since 2008. That is fewer than the shorter King Air 200.

Typical users are corporate flight departments, air ambulance operators, charter companies and government agencies. Several accidents in the data involve police, surveillance, flight-inspection and cloud-seeding aircraft, and not passenger carriage.

How many have crashed, and on what kind of flight?

Of the 31 events, 11 count under our business rules:

Ten more since 2008 are military flights, including one attack on an air base in Kenya on 5 January 2020. The last ten happened before 2008 and do not count, among them the only passenger charter crash in our data, near Linz, Austria, on 12 May 1996.

With about 2.7 million flights since 2008 and 11 counted accidents, confidence is medium: the family's own record carries most of the weight in its score, and the class average for modern business turboprops (the PC-12 and TBM) the rest. Its score is a little below that of the PC-12, which ranks just above it, but the likely ranges overlap, so the gap is small and uncertain.

The "other" group includes the worst events. On 22 May 2009, a Santa Coloma Investimentos aircraft crashed near Porto Seguro, Brazil, in heavy rain at night, with 14 dead. On 30 June 2019, an EE Operations aircraft crashed just after take-off from Dallas-Addison, with 10 dead. The left engine lost almost all its thrust; the NTSB could not find why, and found that the crew did not maintain control or follow the manufacturer's engine-failure procedure.

Ambulance, night and weather

Medical flights are a clear theme. On 22 March 2012, an INAER Helicopter Chile aircraft was lost on a night ambulance flight from Punta Arenas, with eight dead. On 1 September 2019, a Lionair medical evacuation flight met severe turbulence while descending toward Manila, and nine died.

The most recent counted event came on 9 October 2026, when a Minas Gerais state police King Air 300 crashed short of the runway at Ipatinga, Brazil, after a go-around, killing all three on board. Before it, on 5 August 2025, a CSI Aviation aircraft crashed at Chinle, Arizona, on a positioning flight, killing all four on board. Neither investigation has published a cause yet. A Mexican Navy King Air 350 that crashed on approach to Galveston, Texas, on 22 December 2025, with six dead, was a military flight and does not count.

None of this points to a design flaw. Night, cloud and short notice are what the work involves, and they appear in the records of other ambulance aircraft too, such as the Pilatus PC-12.

How to check a charter or ambulance operator

• Ask for the air operator certificate and confirm it with the national aviation authority. In the United States, charter flights run under Part 135, and private flights under Part 91 have fewer rules.
• Ask whether two pilots fly the aircraft and how recently they trained for engine failure.
• Ask if the operator holds an independent safety audit, such as IS-BAO, ARGUS or Wyvern.
• Ask what the operator does at night in poor weather. A reasonable answer includes delay or a different airport.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show BE30 for the 300 and B350 for the 350 and 360. The 350 has a longer fuselage than the 200 and a larger cabin.