- Date
- October 24, 1999, 14:08 local (21:08 UTC)
- Place
- Bremerton, WA
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N1231Aero Commander 680
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report January 18, 2001
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19991024040439A
- Case key
- 47727
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
Loss of directional control by the student pilot during landing. Factors include inadequate remedial action by the flight instructor, and an airport sign that was struck by the airplane, collapsing the left main landing gear.
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 and flight instructor were conducting full-stop landing practice in the multi-engine airplane. The airplane drifted off the runway, struck a taxiway marker, and collapsed the left main landing gear. In a telephone interview, the student acknowledged that he had lost directional control of the airplane during landing.
Factual narrative
On October 24, 1999, at 1408 Pacific daylight time, an Aero Commander 680, N1231, registered to Washington Aeroprogress, Inc., Seattle, Washington, sustained substantial damage after a loss of directional control during the landing roll at Bermerton airport, Bermerton, Washington. The flight instructor and his multi-engine student were uninjured. The flight initiated at Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington as a 14 CFR 91 instructional flight about one hour before the accident. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. No flight plan was filed for the flight, and there was no report of an ELT actuating.
The pilots were conducting full-stop landing practice, landing on runway 01. The airplane drifted off the runway, struck a taxiway marker, and collapsed the left main landing gear. In a telephone interview, the student acknowledged that he had lost directional control of the airplane during landing.
The student pilot asserted that he was the new unregistered owner of the airplane, that the flight instructor was on board as a guest pilot with no pilot responsibilities, and that the airplane was owned and operated by a stateless "protected private foreign company, unlimited conscience objector," under an apostille of the convention de La Haye of October 5, 1961. There was no record of the student pilot holding either a student pilot certificate, pilot's certificate, or airman's medical. The student pilot returned an unsigned NTSB form 6120.1/2; the flight instructor did not return a pilot/operator statement.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N1231
- Reported as
- Aero Commander 680
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 680534203
- Engine
- Lycoming GSO-480, 340 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Dale Smith
- Registered owner
- Washington Aeroprogress Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- BFI · Seattle, WA
- Destination
- PWT
- Airport
- PWT · Bremerton National, runway 1, 6,200 × 150 ft, asphalt
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
- 60
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine sea, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Right
- Flight hours
- 1,295 total
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 30° at 7 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 55 °F, dew point 43 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- KPW
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.