Aircraft: Piper Cherokee Six. Injuries: None. Location: Middle Bass Island, Ohio. Aircraft damage: Substantial.
What reportedly happened: The accident happened during the pilot’s attempt to land over snow piles near the runway.
The pilot reported that the airplane touched down short of the runway threshold, and when the landing gear contacted the edge of the paved runway, the right main landing gear was torn off the airplane.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right main wing spar.
Probable cause: The pilot did not attain the proper touchdown point during landing, which resulted in impact with the edge of the runway surface.
NTSB Identification: CEN13CA125
This December 2012 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Here’s one to ponder:
Only two things can happen to a pilot–both bad (and one will).
(1) a pilot will walk out to the plane knowing this is his last flight.
(2) a pilot will walk out to the plane NOT knowing this is his last flight.
No, neither statement is bad and if someone thinks that way then they need to make a change.
Thanks John. A safe holiday to all. Curt in Maine
Some of these accident reports make about as much sense as some of the comments made about them.
Meg’s reports are well done and 30% of comments are unnecessary.
It’s hard to taxi at a high rate of speed when the right main landing gear “was torn off.”
Ha Ha – good one!
it is very telling that the airport manager, who investigated the accident immediately upon learning about it within minutes of when it occurred, found the pilot to “be in a hurry” to leave the airport to go skiing. The pilot said he had attempted to turn the aircraft into a tiedown near the ramp heaters, yet the heaters were located elsewhere. The image of the wing damage in the docket looked like the aircraft was taxiing at a high rate of speed when the pilot attempted to make the sharp turn to the left… the wing tip was destroyed! In later discussion with FBO personnel, the airport manager learned the plane had a significant ice load when it was put in a heated hangar. The Apt Mgr visited the hangar about a hour after the plane was placed it it, and observed nearly an inch of ice on the leading edge of the non-fiki aircraft. The pilot had “just received” his commercial certificate.
In a side note, Meg finds some really interesting accidents to put out here for us to read and learn from. Kudos to her, and to GAN.