27 Dec 2017: CESSNA 525A — INTEGRATED FLIGHT RESOURCES INC

27 Dec 2017: CESSNA 525A (N525KT) — INTEGRATED FLIGHT RESOURCES INC

No fatalities • Michigan City, IN, United States

Probable cause

The flight crew's improper decision to land on a snow-covered runway that had insufficient runway distance for the airplane to land with the contamination, which resulted in a runway overrun and impact with obstacles.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On December 27, 2017, at 0650 central standard time, a Cessna 525A airplane, N525KT, impacted an airport fence, highway barrier, and terrain during a landing overrun on runway 20 (4,100 ft by 75 ft, asphalt/dry snow) following an area navigation (RNAV) runway 20 approach at Michigan City Municipal Airport-Phillips Field (MGC), Michigan City, Indiana. The airplane sustained substantial damage. The pilot and copilot received minor injuries. The airplane was registered to Van E Aviation LLC and operated by Integrated Flight Resources Inc under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a positioning flight and was operating on an activated instrument flight rules flight plan. The flight originated from DuPage Airport (DPA), West Chicago, Illinois, at 0622 and was destined to MGC for a Part 135 on-demand passenger flight. The pilot stated the co-pilot was the flying pilot for the flight. About halfway to MGC, they noticed instrument meteorological conditions below them. They flew the MGC RNAV approach runway 20 and broke out of the clouds with "adequate time to see the runway lights." The pilot said the runway appeared to have a "light dusting of snow." He said the airplane touched down on speed within the first 1,000 ft of the runway. The co-pilot "immediately" deployed ground flaps, and the airplane began slowing down. There appeared to be no braking effectiveness when co-pilot braked "heavily." He said the airplane was not slowing down as he was accustomed. About 2/3rds down, he knew that the airplane was going to overrun the runway, and the airplane had not lost half its airspeed. He said there was a small chance to become airborne within the remaining runway distance if an aborted landing was performed. The pilot said that engine power was added for the aborted landing, and for a moment it appeared that the airplane was going to become airborne as the nose wheel landing gear lifted off, but there was not enough runway remaining. Engine power was reduced to idle as the airplane overran the runway and went through the airport fence, a guard rail, across US Highway 20, and into a field. A witness, who was driving westbound in the right lane of US Highway 20, stated he saw the airplane traveling toward the north, go through the fence and guard rail, and missed his car by no more than 5 ft. The airplane came to rest, facing north, in a corn field about 300 yards from the departure end of the runway 20. The left wing was separated near wing station (WS) 57.00 and the right wing leading edge sustained damage near WS 171.00. The vertical stabilizer sustained damage near water line 195.00. A post-accident examination revealed that there were no flat spots or evidence of skidding on the landing gear tires. The flaps were in the GROUND FLAPS POSITION. There were no mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal aircraft operation. According to the airport manager, the soonest that airport personnel could perform a post-accident runway inspection was about two hours after the accident and it revealed about ¼ inch of snow on the runway. The Cessna 525A Aircraft Flight Manual shows an airplane at the gross landing weight (12,500 lbs) and weather conditions, the airplane needed about 2,540 ft to stop on a dry runway. The 525A Section VII Advisory Information indicates that the stopping distance with 1 inch of snow was 7,100 ft and with 2 inches of snow was 6,300 ft. According to the Federal Aviation Administration inspector from the DuPage Flight Standards District Office, the approximate stopping distance on a wet runway based upon an aircraft weight of 11,000 lbs was 4,400 ft. An alternate airport required under Part 91.169(a)(2), IFR flight plan: Information required, was not filed by the flight crew.

Contributing factors

  • cause Flight crew
  • cause Capability exceeded
  • Decision related to condition
  • Effect on operation
  • Surface speed/braking — Not attained/maintained

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 290/05kt, vis 4sm

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.