17 May 2009: Venus Trike — Jon A. Nicholson

17 May 2009: Venus Trike — Jon A. Nicholson

No fatalities • Kuna, ID, United States

Probable cause

The complete loss of engine power for undetermined reasons, and the overload failure of the nose landing gear strut during the roll out over soft/rough terrain.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

The non-certificated pilot of the unregistered two-place weight-shift trike was flying over his ranch when its 65 horsepower engine suddenly lost all power. Although he was able to descend to a successful power-off touchdown, during the landing roll the trike encountered rough/soft terrain, resulting in the overload failure of the nose gear strut. The nose of the trike then dug into the dirt, and its airframe nosed over onto its back. The accident was eventually reported by a family member of the passenger, and the Federal Aviation Administration Inspector who went to the ranch to interview the pilot reported that the pilot had already disposed of the airframe and the engine because of their extensive damage. The pilot said that he had no idea why the engine lost power, and that he completed a preflight inspection prior to the flight. No further determination could be made as to the basis for the engine's loss of power.

Contributing factors

  • cause Power plant — Failure
  • cause Capability exceeded
  • Pilot
  • Contributed to outcome

Conditions

Weather
VMC, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.