- Date
- August 13, 1989, 17:50 local (22:50 UTC)
- Place
- Houston, TX
- Injuries
- 8 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N66HAHawker Siddeley DH-125-3A
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report June 26, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Case key
- 22904
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
Failure of the nose wheel steering system for undetermined reasons, and the pilot-in-command's hesitation reaching for the nose wheel steering tiller. A contributing factor was his lack of experience in a DH-125.
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
During landing, upon nose wheel contact with the runway, directional control was lost and the aircraft exited the runway hard surface and crossed a ditch collapsing the nose gear. The crew stated that full left rudder and differential braking would not stop the right drift, and that the aircraft was in grass uncontrollable by the time the steering tiller was reached. The nose wheel steering system was extensively damaged by the impact sequence when the nose wheel well aft bulkhead was forced into the steering assembly. The pilot stated that if he had been 'spring loaded to the tiller' that he could have possibly kept the aircraft off the grass.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N66HA
- Reported as
- Hawker Siddeley DH-125-3A
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 25126
- Airframe hours
- 3,966
- Engine
- Rolls-Royce VIPER 522, 3,360 lbs thrust, turbo jet
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Skytravel Inc.
- Registered owner
- Associated Aircraft Sales, Co.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- SAV · Savannah, GA
- Destination
- HOU
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- HOU · William P. Hobby, runway 12R, 7,601 × 150 ft, concrete
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
- 36
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine sea, Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 5,180 total · 10 in this make and model · 5,000 as pilot in command · 20 in the last 90 days · 3 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 100° at 8 knots
- Visibility
- 12 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 88 °F, dew point 57 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- HOU