Mastery Flight Training, Inc.  Beech Weekly Accident Update archives

February 2006 Reports

Official information from FAA and NTSB sources (unless otherwise noted).  Editorial comments (contained in parentheses), year-to-date summary and closing comments are those of the author.  All information is preliminary and subject to change.  Comments on preliminary topics are meant solely to enhance flying safety.  Please use these reports to help you more accurately evaluate the potential risks when you make your own decisions about how and when to fly.  Please accept my sincere personal condolences if anyone you know was in a mishap. I welcome your comments, suggestions and criticisms.  Fly safe, and have fun!

Copyright 2006 Mastery Flight Training, Inc.  All Rights Reserved

NEW REPORTS THIS WEEK

1/25 0130Z (1830 local):  during a night, dual instructional flight at Farmington, New Mexico, a Be36 “was substantially damaged when it made a hard landing…. Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident…. The private pilot and the commercial certificated flight instructor were not injured….Preliminary information indicates the private pilot, who was working on his commercial pilot certificate, was receiving instruction from the flight instructor in night takeoffs and landings on runway 7. The wind was reportedly from 090 degrees at 12 knots. The airplane landed hard and the instructor took control of the airplane. They aborted the landing, went around, landed, and secured the airplane for the night. The damage was discovered the next morning by another pilot making a preflight inspection. The left wing was bent up, the upper skin was rippled and wrinkled, and the aileron was buckled. There were scrape marks underneath the left wing tip.”  N1830V (E-3087) is a 1997 A36 registered since 1998 to a corporation in Farmington.

(“Hard landing”; “Substantial damage”; “Night”; “Dual instruction”—a reminder that a post-flight walk-around has benefits, especially since in most cases if the same pilot were to fly a second leg that same evening, the unfortunate tendency is to skip a second walk-around.  A reader, an official with the flight training program that operates this Bonanza, reports the airplane’s rear spar is heavily damaged, and the airplane is being shipped to a location for a wing rebuild or replacement).

NEW NTSB PRELIMINARY REPORTS:  All previously reported in the Weekly Accident Update, and subject to update per NTSB findings.

**1/15 double-fatality D35 crash into mountainous terrain in Tierra Blanca, Costa Rica.** 

**1/25 A36 hard landing at Farmington, New Mexico, cited above.** 

UPDATE

RE: the 1/25 A36 hard landing at Farmington, New Mexico.  A knowledgeable reader writes:  “…the NTSB preliminary did not state the damage as I submitted it on the report.  The left aileron is just barely scraped on the bottom, and in fact did not even have to be replaced or repaired to ferry the plane to Greeley [Colorado, for repairs] which happened yesterday.  Beegles’ [the repair shop at Greeley] guys came in and repaired couple of ribs in order to make it safe for ferry and flew it yesterday.  The aft spar is damaged, but the wing will only need repair, not replacement.  It’ll be back in 2-3 weeks.  As [the WAU] stated, the lessons here are always have the aircraft inspected after a hard landing and always do a proper post flight inspection.”  Thanks, reader, for your follow-up report.

NEW REPORTS THIS WEEK

2/1 2200Z (1500 local):  A Be33, overdue on a solo flight training mission, was found “crashed under unknown circumstances…in mountainous terrain 40 miles southwest of Phoenix, Arizona.”  The pilot was killed and the Bonanza “destroyed.”  The training mission, staged from Goodyear, Arizona, was bound for Buckeye, Arizona when it crashed.  Weather was reported simply as “clear.”  N1563A (CE-1320) was a 1989 F33A registered since 1999 to a flight training organization in Goodyear.

(“Crash/Unknown”; “Fatal”; “Aircraft destroyed”—media reports say the student, participating in Lufthansa Airlines’ ab initio pilot training program, was from Germany.  She had been in the U.S. about two months and logged 49 total hours, including five hours solo, before this solo cross-country).

2/2 0230Z (2000 local 2/1/06):  A Be55 departing Clarksville, Tennessee “struck a deer and the [landing] gear collapsed.”  Aircraft damage is “minor” and the solo pilot was unhurt.  Weather for the night takeoff is “not reported.”  N956SB (TE-956) is a 1973 E55 registered since 2004 to a corporation in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

(“Impact with object/animal during takeoff”; “Night”) 

2/5 2100Z (1400 local):  “While taxiing,” a Be35 “went into a ditch” at Kingman, Arizona.  The solo pilot wasn;t hurt and damage is “minor.”  Weather: “not reported.”  N45X (D-3060) is a 1952 C35 recently registered (October 2005) to an individual in Tucson, Arizona.

(“Taxied into obstruction/pedestrian/other aircraft”; “Recent registration”)

NEW NTSB PRELIMINARY REPORTS:  All previously reported in the Weekly Accident Update, and subject to update per NTSB findings.

**There are no newly posted piston Beechcraft NTSB reports this week**

Return to  archives page.