The pilot reported that, during the final leg of the approach, the airplane was above the
intended approach path and speed. Over the threshold of the runway, the airplane encountered
a gust of wind. The pilot announced on the common traffic advisory frequency his intention to
perform a go-around maneuver. He was unable to perform the maneuver prior to the hard
landing; he then proceeded to overrun the runway and the airplane nosed over, which resulted
in substantial damage to the left wing. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical
malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The
recorded wind at the airport about the time of the accident was variable at 4 knots and for the
hour before and an hour after the accident the wind was recorded as calm.
Category: Loss of Aircraft Control
A Let L-410 skydiving plane was damaged beyond repair in an accident at Borodyanka, Ukraine. Five people were killed. Fifteen occupants survived.
The airplane, carrying 18 skydivers and two crew members, crashed into a field.
The balloon pilot conducted multiple sport parachute flights throughout the day without
obtaining a weather briefing. A SIGMET for severe thunderstorms, hail, and cloud tops to
45,000 feet was in effect for the area surrounding the takeoff and accident sites. Shortly after
the balloon lifted off on the accident flight, the ground crew was advised of a severe storm
warning for the area and observed the storm on radar via their cellular telephones. The crew
contacted the pilot by radio to advise him that the storm was growing quickly. The pilot
informed the ground crew that he would attempt to climb over the storm but shortly thereafter
expressed doubts that the balloon would be able to rise over it.
The pilot stated that, before starting the engine by manually rotating the propeller, he set the
brakes, throttle, and trim. He exited the airplane and proceeded to rotate the propeller. When
the engine started, it went to full rpm, and the airplane started to move forward on the taxiway
at a high speed. The airplane veered off the taxiway and continued its high speed taxi until it
impacted a hangar door, damaging the engine, both wings, and the right main landing gear.
The pilot reported that he had not chocked the airplane and thought the brake was set. He
further reported there were no mechanical problems with the airplane.
While landing, the airplane touched down short of the runway, the left main landing gear impacted the edge of the runway and collapsed, and the airplane departed the edge of the runway into a culvert. The airplane’s left wing sustained substantial damage.
During takeoff the airplane, which was taking off for a parachute jump, collided with trees lining the side of the grass runway. The pilot said that a previous flight that day had been uneventful. During the accident takeoff he said he heard a “pop” at rotation and the airplane pulled to the left.
The airplane was departing for a skydiving flight. During rotation, the jump door opened, which was located on the right side of the airplane. The pilot said that he was not concerned with the door, which would not have critically impacted the airplane’s performance; however, an experienced parachutist attempted to secure the door to the point where he was partially outside of the airplane.
The CASA was on a paradropping flight when all 16 para’s were forced to jump off at an altitude of about 3000m. The CASA returned to Agen airfield, but control was lost and the aircraft crashed some 500m short of runway 11.
The helicopter impacted unmarked power transmission lines as the pilot maneuvered at a low altitude over a river. The helicopter impacted the river and separated into several pieces. The pilot and his passengers were not injured and were rescued by nearby boaters.
The pilot landed on runway 33, which is a dirt runway. The wind direction at the time was 320 degrees at 19 knots, gusting to 29. The pilot turned the airplane around to back taxi to parking. While back taxiing, the airplane’s nose wheel encountered a soft spot of sand, and the pilot added some power to get through the soft spot. The tail came up, and the airplane nosed over.
Surviving skydivers said that as the airplane was climbing to the jump altitude of 10,500 feet agl, the stall warning horn sounded intermittently several times. They paid no particular attention to it because they had heard it on previous flights. When the airplane reached the jump altitude, the pilot signaled for one of the parachutists to open the door. When she did, she told the pilot that the airplane had overshot the drop zone by approximately 1 mile.
The pilot was returning to the airport after releasing some skydivers. He was following a training airplane in the traffic pattern and was gaining on it, so he decided to extend his downwind leg. On final approach to runway 08, his airplane was still gaining on the other airplane. The pilot reduced power and raised the nose to reduce airspeed to 85 mph.
Following an uneventful flight, the pilot overflew the destination airport and observed no apparent wind speed or direction on the windsock. The airplane approached the runway fast, and landed “very hard,” separating the right main landing gear from the airplane in the process.
Following three days of rain, the pilot attempted a soft field takeoff from a turf runway. The pilot reported that as the airplane was “sliding” down the runway he observed something on the windscreen that resembled oil, followed by a decrease in engine oil pressure.
After preflighting the airplane, adding fuel and checking the oil, the pilot radioed that he was taxiing to runway 32. Witnesses subsequently observed the airplane takeoff on runway 32, make a 180-degree turn toward the south, and then fly downwind and parallel to the runway at an altitude of between 300 and 500 feet above ground level. At approximately the end of the runway the airplane was observed making a left turn onto base leg for runway 32, followed by a steep turn to final before nosing into the ground and bursting into flames.
On July 29, 2006, about 1345 central daylight time, a de Havilland DHC 6 100, N203E, registered to Adventure Aviation, LLC, and operated by Skydive Quantum Leap as a local parachute operations flight, crashed into trees and terrain after takeoff from Sullivan Regional Airport, near Sullivan, Missouri. The pilot and five parachutists were killed, and two parachutists were seriously injured.
According to the pilot, she dropped her load of skydivers and was coming in for a landing. She “could see fog rolling in fast” and knew she “had to get…on the ground.” She “landed at a higher speed which is normally fine but because of the runway conditions, which were slick, [she] had minimal braking and ran out of runway.”
The purpose of the flight was for the second pilot to perform an evaluation of the first pilot, who was recently designated by the operator as a backup pilot. Following several successful flights with and without passengers, the pilots discussed single engine operations, and the first pilot reduced the right engine’s power to flight idle and feathered the propeller.
The pilot did not perform weight and balance calculations for the accident flight; though, postaccident calculations indicated that the airplane was under gross weight and the center of gravity was within limits. The pilot reported that he did not have any memory of the accident flight. The accident flight was the second flight of the day for the pilot and began immediately after landing from the previous skydive drop flight.
The local parachuting flight was to depart from the airport owned and maintained by the pilot. During the initial climb after takeoff from runway 09, the airplane drifted right and struck trees about 500 feet down the runway. The pilot stated that he did not see the trees before hitting them. A passenger stated that the pilot did not make any changes to the airplane’s flight path prior to impact with the trees.
The airplane entered an inverted spin during a skydiving operation when a parachutist’s parachute deployed while exiting the airplane at 10,500 feet mean sea level. The parachute became entangled around the right hand landing gear and the parachutist could not be freed. The pilot, who was wearing a parachute, and the remaining parachutists jumped from the airplane.
During cruise flight, the 33,000-hour pilot stated that the airplane encountered “extreme clear air turbulence followed by three jolts in rapid succession.” He “heard a loud pop as he jerked the throttle to the flight idle position.” As the airspeed was slowing, the pilot attempted to add power. The “throttle would not move from the flight idle position and the propeller went into BETA.”
The airplane landed downwind, approximately halfway down the runway, overran the end of the runway and nosed over. The pilot reported that while en route he monitored a nearby automated weather observing system (AWOS) and the winds were “230 [degrees true] at 3 knots.” The pilot stated, “I decided I would use either end of [the] runway since [the] wind was calm.”
The 363-hour single-engine commercial rated pilot lost control of the airplane during a parachute activity flight. The airplane subsequently stalled and entered a spin to the left. A witness radioed the pilot and asked what was wrong, and the pilot replied that he was in a spin and didn’t know what to do.
The pilot made a hard landing collapsing the nose gear and damaging the firewall. The pilot took off and turned to downwind for landing. He reported that he flew an uneventful and normal approach. He said that he touched down on the main landing gear, but the nose gear folded under the airplane as it touched down.