12 Sep 2019: Piper PA23 250 — Executive Airshares Llc

12 Sep 2019: Piper PA23 250 (N269KW) — Executive Airshares Llc

No fatalities • Charlotte Amalie, United States

Probable cause

The collapse of the left main landing gear for undetermined reasons.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On September 12, 2019, at 0225 Atlantic standard time, a Piper PA23-250, N269KW, was substantially damaged while taxiing at Cyril E King Airport (TIST), Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands. The commercial pilot was not injured. The airplane was registered to Executive Airshares, LLC, and operated under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Night, visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and the personal flight was destined for Henry E Rohlsen Airport (TISX), St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. According to the pilot's written statement, he "added throttle to get the temp[eratures]s up" back taxiing to Runway 10. He cycled the propeller twice, pulled the throttle back to idle, heard an irregular noise and then felt ground contact. He immediately shut off the mixtures to both engines. The pilot reported that "the gear was slowly collapsing" while he was taxiing, "which could not be recognized in the dark." Inspection of the accident site and wreckage by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector revealed a 60 to 70 ft ground scar on the runway leading to the runway edge, consistent with the left landing gear and wingtip. Ground scars were observed in the turf from the runway edge leading to where the airplane came to rest after striking a runway light. The left-wing leading edge was fractured and impact damaged in several areas and the wing spar was substantially damaged. The trailing edge of the outboard left wing displayed damage consistent with ground and runway contact. The landing gear was examined under the supervision of the FAA inspector. The inspector noted no evidence of landing gear structural damage and no malfunction of the landing gear actuator. A retraction test revealed no mechanical failures and a hydraulic pressure test revealed no anomalies. According to maintenance records, the airplane's most recent annual inspection was completed on July 1, 2019, at which time a landing gear retraction test was performed with no anomalies noted.

Contributing factors

  • cause Main landing gear

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 070/04kt, 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.