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.
Category: Loss of Aircraft Control
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 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.
While landing on runway 3, the airplane’s right wing contacted the runway and the airplane landed hard. A weather observation reported at an airport about 18 miles northeast of the accident site, included winds from 320 degrees at 13 knots. The pilot further reported that he conducted an uneventful flight an hour prior to the accident, with the same wind conditions.
The pilot landed long beyond his intended touchdown point. He delayed his decision to initiate a go-around. The airplane struck trees at the end of the runway.
On the fourth parachute drop flight of the day for the pilot and aircraft, the pilot detected a reduction in elevator control authority on takeoff. He elected to continue the takeoff and climbed to 3,500 feet agl, where he released the two parachutists. On return to the airport, he used power to control his flare, but landed hard and began a porpoise maneuver.
Prior to the day of the accident, the pilot had not flown out of the airstrip. During takeoff, the airplane traveled over a ‘soft spot’, and began to veer to the left. The pilot was unable to correct the turn, the airplane went off the left side of the runway and struck a tree. The runway was 1,515 feet long, 110 feet wide, and consisted of soft turf. Review of the pilot’s weight and balance calculations revealed that the airplane was approximately 300 pounds over the maximum gross takeoff weight.