What happened
During a nighttime arrival at the pilot's home airport, an aircraft overran the runway surface. The aircraft made contact with the runway approximately 1,400 feet from the threshold of the 3,864-foot runway. Following the touchdown, the plane traveled past the end of the paved surface, eventually coming to a stop roughly 851 feet beyond the departure end of the runway.
At the time of the accident, the pilot was operating the aircraft under a single-pilot waiver that had been granted two months earlier. While the aircraft's FAA certification requires a crew of two, the pilot was flying alone while returning from a personal event. Witnesses observing the approach noted that the flight path was inconsistent with the pilot's typical landing pattern, which usually involved touching down directly on the runway numbers. Additionally, observers reported hearing the thrust reversers deploy and then subsequently return to a stowed position during the landing roll.
Findings
Investigation into the landing parameters revealed that the approach was unstable. The aircraft's systems issued two sink rate warnings during the descent, which served as alerts regarding the improper approach profile. Furthermore, performance data indicated that the available runway length was insufficient for the conditions; calculations demonstrated that the aircraft would have needed an additional 765 to 2,217 feet of runway to achieve a complete stop.