- Date
- December 7, 2024, 16:27 UTC
- Place
- Valdosta, GA
- Injuries
- 1 serious
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N100SWWilliam M Clapp CLAPP-SABERWING
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Hard landing
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20241207021179A
- Case key
- 199398
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
A hard landing and subsequent gear collapse due to the pilot’s failure to securely close the airplane canopy and its subsequent opening on short final.
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 private pilot was practicing takeoffs and landings and reported that while maneuvering through the traffic pattern, the canopy became partially opened. The canopy was equipped with two side latches and one main latch at the rear of the canopy. The right-side latch held the canopy partially secured until the final approach segment when it also released, and the canopy opened completely. The airplane subsequently nosed down and contacted the ground nose first just short of the runway whereupon the nose landing gear separated from the airplane and the main landing gear collapsed, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage. The pilot was seriously injured. The pilot reported forgetting to lock the main rear latch to the canopy after opening it during taxi. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N100SW
- Reported as
- William M Clapp CLAPP-SABERWING
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- CLAPP05
- Built
- 2019
- Airframe hours
- 70
- Engine
- Corvair Corvair/spider, 100 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Annual · November 1, 2024 · 15 hours before
- Airport
- VLD · Valdosta Regional, runway 36, 8,003 × 150 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- Unknown
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
- 50
- Injuries
- Serious
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- BasicMed, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- November 30, 2024
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 359 total · 12 in this make and model · 321 as pilot in command · 24 in the last 90 days · 7 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 60° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 54 °F, dew point 19 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.39 inHg
- Observed at
- VLD
- METAR
- KVLD 071653Z 06005KT 10SM CLR 12/M07 A3039 RMK AO2 SLP300 T01171067
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on April 22, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 3.7 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.