Accident Overview
On 10 January 2003 at approximately 14:00 local time, a Cessna U-206F aircraft, registration EC-ERM, was on a positioning flight and crashed during the landing roll at El Berriel Aerodrome on Gran Canaria. The aircraft departed El Berriel around 12:00 for Gando Airport to refuel, as no fuel was available at El Berriel. After refueling, it departed Gando at 11:55 and arrived back at El Berriel about five minutes later, landing on runway 07.
Aircraft and Pilot Information
The aircraft was a Cessna U-206F powered by a single Continental IO-520-F engine. It had a valid airworthiness certificate. The pilot, aged 21, held a commercial pilot license and had a total of 521 flight hours, with 35 hours on the accident aircraft type.
Accident Sequence
The pilot reported that during the approach, the airspeed was 78 knots with one notch of flaps. Over the runway threshold, the wind shifted from a 4-knot headwind to a 20-knot tailwind, then to a crosswind from the left. After touchdown about 50 meters from the threshold, the aircraft began to bounce in the middle of the runway. At approximately 400 meters down the runway, a gust from the left, estimated at over 25 knots, pushed the aircraft off the right side of the runway. The pilot reported that insufficient runway remained for a go-around. Once off the runway, the aircraft rolled across flat sand until the right main landing gear entered a depression, causing the aircraft to nose over. The pilot retracted the flaps during the landing roll.
Meteorological Conditions
Wind measurements at the runway thresholds showed 20 knots from variable directions (090–200 degrees) at the 07 threshold and 20 knots from 070 degrees at the 25 threshold. The pilot observed windsocks indicating opposite directions and flags indicating crosswind. Witnesses in another aircraft at the holding point of runway 07 reported significant wind direction changes, from headwind to tailwind to crosswind, at the time of the accident.
Aerodrome Information
El Berriel Aerodrome has a single asphalt runway 800 meters long and 22 meters wide. No anomalies with the runway surface were noted.
Conclusions
The investigation concluded that the most probable cause of the accident was the presence of turbulence near the middle of the runway and changing winds along it with high intensity, which caused a loss of control of the aircraft on the ground.