- Date
- September 19, 1994, 22:00 local (Sep 20, 1994, 02:00 UTC)
- Place
- Winston-Salem, NC
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N9931RBeech M35
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report February 24, 1995
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19940919037919A
- Case key
- 3446
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The student pilot's failure to maintain airspeed and a proper glidepath on final approach, resulting in an inadvertent stall and undershoot. Factors were the night lighting conditions, and the flight instructor's inadequate supervision of the student pilot.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The student pilot (117 hours total flying time) was landing the airplane during night, VMC. The flight instructor cautioned that the airplane was low and slow on short final. The student raised the nose, but did not add power. The aircraft stalled, and landed short of the runway edge. As the aircraft crossed the runway edge, the nose gear collapsed, and the left wing main spar buckled. The accident flight was the first occasion that the student and instructor had flown together. The instructor reported that he was not familiar with the student's abilities, and waited too late to take corrective action.
Factual narrative
On September 19, 1994, at 2200 eastern daylight time, a Beech M35, N9931R, landed short and collided with the runway edge at the Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The student pilot and his flight instructor were not injured. The aircraft was owned and operated by the student pilot. The aircraft was substantially damaged. Night, visual meteorological conditions existed at the time, and no flight plan was filed for the business flight. The flight originated in Wilmington, North Carolina at 2100.
The student pilot, Mr. Michael Lopez, reported that he had requested, through an airport staff employee, that his airplane be flown from Winston-Salem to Wilmington by a flight instructor. Mr. Lopez would then fly the airplane from Wilmington to Winston- Salem, with the instructor in the right seat. While approaching the Smith Reynolds Airport, Mr. Lopez allowed the aircraft to get low and slow on short final. The flight instructor, Mr. Richard Hartsog, cautioned him that they were too low, and Mr. Lopez raised the nose of the aircraft without adding power. The aircraft stalled on short final, resulting in a touchdown short of the runway threshold. Mr. Lopez also reported that he had not been acquainted with Mr. Hartsog prior to the day of the accident.
Mr. Hartsog corroborated Mr. Lopez' account of the accident. He stated that he was unfamiliar with Mr. Lopez' flying abilities, and that he waited too late to take corrective action.
An examination of the touchdown area revealed that the aircraft landing gear impacted the concrete edge of the runway end shortly after touchdown. The nose gear collapsed, and the left wing main spar buckled.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N9931R
- Reported as
- Beech M35
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- D-6468
- Airframe hours
- 4,042
- Engine
- Continental IO-470-C, 260 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Business · Part 91
- Operator
- Lopez, Michael E.
- Registered owner
- Alpha Mortgage Corporation
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Provisional (Special); Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · May 26, 1994 · 40 hours before
- Departed
- ILM · Wilmington, NC
- Airport
- INT · Smith Reynolds, runway 33, 6,655 × 150 ft, asphalt
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 30
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Right
- Flight hours
- 1,200 total · 25 in this make and model · 1,000 as pilot in command
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 61 °F, dew point 52 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- INT, 1 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.