- Date
- July 9, 2012, 15:30 local (20:30 UTC)
- Place
- Williston, ND
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N8709VBellanca 7KCAB
- Defining event
- Landing-landing roll: Dragged wing/rotor/float/other
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report October 9, 2012
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Case key
- 84273
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 pilot's failure to ensure a suitable landing surface.
Findings · 2
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The pilot reported that he was performing a landing in a wheat field. When the pilot began to flare the airplane, the main landing gear became entangled with the tall wheat grass, which resulted in the airplane lurching forward and to the right. The right wing impacted the ground, and the airplane nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing, the vertical stabilizer, and the rudder. Nine days before the accident, the pilot had marked a 1,000-foot-long landing strip in the field. He stated that the wheat grass had grown considerably since then.
Factual narrative
In a statement provided by the pilot, he was performing a landing in a wheat field. The pilot approached the field from the west and flew a midfield downwind at 3,000 feet mean sea level (MSL) over the intended landing strip. When the pilot began to flare the airplane, the main landing gear became entangled with the tall wheat grass, which resulted in the airplane lurching forward and to the right. The right wing impacted the ground and the airplane nosed over. The airplane came to rest inverted and pointed in the opposite direction of flight. Nine days prior to the accident, the pilot had marked a 1,000 foot landing strip in the field. He stated that the wheat grass had grown considerably since then.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8709V
- Reported as
- Bellanca 7KCAB
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 518-75
- Airframe hours
- 1,976
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-320 SERIES, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Business · Part 91
- Operator
- Kempner James C
- Registered owner
- Kempner James C
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · November 1, 2011 · 43 hours before
- Departed
- ISN · Williston, ND
- Destination
- Williston, ND
- Airport
- runway 24, grass/turf
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 41
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine sea, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3
- Last flight review
- September 16, 2010
- Seat
- Front
- Flight hours
- 1,100 total · 210 in this make and model · 1,073 as pilot in command · 36 in the last 90 days · 17 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 240° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 93 °F, dew point 52 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.09 inHg
- Observed at
- ISN, 50 nm away
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on August 9, 2012, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 698 KB in all.