- Date
- March 22, 2002, 15:00 local (21:00 UTC)
- Place
- Gainesville, MO
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N170PSCessna 170A
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report April 15, 2003
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Parties
- Federal Aviation Administration - Kansas City FSDO
- FAA report
- 20020322007629A
- Case key
- 54441
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 misjudgment of distance/altitude and his failure to perform a go-around.
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 pilot reported that he landed long and an aborted landing was not possible when he realized that the airplane would not stop prior to the end of the runway. He attempted to stop at the end of the runway by intentionally ground looping the airplane but the airplane slid off the runway and impacted a drainage ditch.
Factual narrative
On March 22, 2002, at 1500 central standard time, a Cessna 170A, N170PS, sustained substantial damage during an on-ground collision with the terrain while landing on runway 19 (1,895 feet by 100 feet, dry/turf) at the Gainesville Memorial Airport, Gainesville, Missouri. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The flight was being operated under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91 without a flight plan. The private pilot, the sole occupant, reported no injuries. The flight departed the Marion County Regional Airport, Flippin, Arkansas, at 1440.
According to the pilot's written statement, "My approach was high to this grass runway and landed longer than necessary. When I realized I was long the plane was at a speed, and the runway remaining, precluded a go-around. At the runway end I tried to ground loop aircraft but slid sideways into drainage ditch."
Aircraft
- Registration
- N170PS
- Reported as
- Cessna 170A
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 20152
- Engine
- Continental C-145, 145 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Howard P. Orlebeke
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- FLP · Flippin, AR
- Destination
- H27 · Gainsville, MO
- Airport
- H27 · Gainesville Memorial Airport, runway 190, 1,895 × 100 ft, 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
- 80
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Last flight review
- April 1, 2001
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 2,603 total · 1,743 in this make and model · 2,603 as pilot in command · 9 in the last 90 days · 3 in the last 30 days · 0 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 270° at 7 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 39 °F, dew point 5 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.40 inHg
- Observed at
- BPK, 15 nm away
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on January 27, 2003, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 2.5 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.