# NTSB SEA02LA034: Rockwell 500-S, N1187G, Baker City, OR, January 19, 2002 - Type: NTSB accident investigation - Classification: Accident · No injuries · Limited investigation · Final report - Date: January 18, 2002, 18:15 local (Jan 19, 2002, 01:15 UTC) - Place: Baker City, OR - Coordinates: 44.830558, -117.760612 (estimated) - Nearby events: https://openairdocs.org/map.md?lat=44.8306&lon=-117.7606&mi=10 - Phase of flight: [Landing](https://openairdocs.org/ntsb-phases/550) (OpenAirDocs' grouping) - Highest injury: No injuries - Injuries: 3 uninjured - Status: Completed, report October 24, 2002 - Report: Approved by Office Director - Parties: Boise FSDO - NTSB case key (mKey): 54097 - NTSB case page: https://web.ntsb.gov/investigations/?ntsbnumber=SEA02LA034 - NTSB report (PDF, downloads): https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/54097/pdf - NTSB docket: https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket?ProjectID=54097 - Page: https://openairdocs.org/ntsb/SEA02LA034 ## Probable cause The pilot's excessive descent rate at the time the aircraft came in contact with the runway during a night precautionary landing. Factors include extensive airframe ice accumulation, ice accumulation on the flight compartment windshield, ambient conditions conducive to airframe icing, a dark night, and a snow bank along the edge of the runway. ## Analysis While en route on an IFR flight plan, the aircraft encountered ambient conditions that resulted in extensive ice accumulation on the airframe structure. Because the pilot was unable to maintain the required minimum altitude on the next leg of the flight, he elected to divert into a nearby airport. After getting below the overcast clouds, he shot a visual approach on a very dark night while looking through a partially ice-covered windshield. During the attempted landing, the pilot allowed the aircraft to contact the runway at a descent rate high enough to cause permanent structural damage to the aircraft's fuselage, and to permanently force the left main landing gear oleo strut to its fully compressed limit. The force of the impact also caused the tire support rim on the nose wheel to fracture into several pieces that were later recovered from the runway. After the rim separated from the main nose wheel drum, the drum portion of the wheel rolled along inside the tire. As the landing roll continued, the aircraft departed the runway and plowed through an 18 inch-high snow bank created by snow that had be removed from the runway. As the aircraft passed through the snow bank, the nose gear strut down-lock failed, and the nose gear was forced backwards and up into the wheel well. The collapse of the nose gear strut allowed the belly skin just aft of the nose gear well to come in contact with the snow bank, which resulted in the belly skin being pushed inward around the fuselage bulkheads. ## Factual narrative On January 18, 2002, approximately 1815 Pacific standard time, a Rockwell International 500-S, N1187G, experienced a collapse of the nose gear strut during the landing roll at Baker City Municipal Airport, Baker City, Oregon. The private pilot and his two passengers were not injured, but the aircraft, which is owned and operated CXA Financial, Inc., sustained substantial damage. The 14 CFR Part 91 personal transportation flight, which departed Tacoma Narrows Airport, Tacoma, Washington, about two hours prior to the accident, was operating in visual meteorological conditions at the time of the event. The pilot had been on an IFR flight plan to Hailey, Idaho, but cancelled his IFR clearance when he diverted into Baker. The ELT did not activate during the accident sequence. According to the pilot, while he was en route to Hailey, the flight entered an area where a significant amount of ice accumulated on the aircraft, and he was having trouble maintaining the altitude he needed to continue the flight. He therefore asked for vectors to divert into Baker City as a safety precaution. After descending below the clouds, the pilot executed a visual approach while looking through a partially ice-covered windshield. According to the pilot, in addition to the restricted visibility created by the ice on the windscreen, a thick overcast shielded the moonlight and created a very dark night. Because of the aerodynamic effects of the ice buildup on the airframe, the pilot used a higher than normal approach speed (approximately 130 mph) and kept some power in throughout the landing sequence. In a telephone interview just after the accident, the pilot said that the aircraft was still in a fairly high rate of descent when the main gear contacted the runway. He said that the main gear hit the runway very hard, followed almost immediately by the solid impact of the nose gear. The pilot said that at the moment the nose gear hit, it felt like the nose gear strut collapsed. Soon thereafter, the aircraft departed the side of the runway, went through a 30 inch high snow bank, and came to rest between the runway and an adjacent taxiway. According to the pilot, although the middle of the runway was clear, there was packed snow near its edges. A post-accident inspection of the aircraft revealed that the hard landing and the collision with the snow bank resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage in a number of areas (see photographs). On both sides of the fuselage, underneath the wings, there was a permanent deformation crease running forward and down at a 45 degree angle from where the aft part of the wing attaches to the fuselage structure. On both sides of the fuselage, just forward of the windscreen, where the sides of the aircraft curve inward toward the top of the fuselage nose, the skin had buckled inward along a line about 12 to 18 inches long. The top skin on the inboard two feet of both wings was wavy and oil canned, and the fuselage area just forward of where the right wing leading edge connects with the fuselage skin had a permanent inward flex along 18 inches of the fuselage-to-wing reinforcement plate. It was also noted that the force of the hard landing had pushed the left main gear strut into its housing to the fully compressed limit, where it remained even while the aircraft was airborne on a ferry flight back to the aircraft's home airport. It was also determined that the belly skin around the nose wheel well, aft of the forward wheel well bulkhead, had been compressed inward (hydrauliced) around the lower part of the fuselage structural bulkheads. The nose wheel strut down-lock had failed and the nose wheel strut and fork had been forced up into the wheel well. The strut fork and the skin forward of the nose wheel well forward bulkhead showed no scaring, denting, deformation, or any other damage consistent with impact with the runway surface or the snow bank. The aforementioned skin around the nose wheel well showed some minor surface rubbing of the paint, but did not contain any longitudinal gouging or scaring consistent with that area sliding on the surface of an asphalt runway. The tire support rim of the nose wheel had fractured away from the wheel main drum around both sides of its circumference, and a number of these rim pieces were recovered from the runway. Although the fracture faces of the rim pieces had the familiar irregular gray granular surface, most of the matching fracture faces of the main wheel drum had been burnished to a smooth and shinny finish. The drum portion of the wheel was still resting loosely inside the nose tire when pulled from the nose wheel well. ## Sequence of events In NTSB's coding before 2008 (https://www.ntsb.gov/GILS/Documents/codman.pdf). - Hard landing, landing - flare/touchdown - descent - excessive, pilot in command (cause) - airframe - ice (contributing factor) - window,flight compartment window/windshield - ice (contributing factor) - light condition - dark night (contributing factor) - weather condition - icing conditions (contributing factor) - Gear collapsed, landing - roll - airport facilities,runway/landing area condition - snowbank (contributing factor) - landing gear,nose gear strut - overload - Gear collapsed, landing - roll ## Aircraft - Registration: N1187G (not matched to a registry record) - Reported make and model: Rockwell 500-S - Category: Airplane - Serial number: 3180 - Airframe hours: 3498 - Engines: Lycoming IO-540-E1B5 290 horsepower reciprocating - Damage: Substantial damage - Flight: Personal, Part 91 - Operator: Richard W. Boehlke - Registered owner: CXA Financial, Inc. - Airworthiness certificate: Standard, Normal - Last inspection: Annual, April 12, 2001, 78 hours before - Departed: TIW, Tacoma, WA - Destination: SUN, Hailey, ID - Flight plan: IFR - Airport: BKE, Baker City Municipal, runway 30, 5,095 × 100 ft, asphalt ## Flight crew As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names. - Pilot; age 53; injuries: none; private; airplane ratings: multi-engine land, single-engine land, multi-engine sea, single-engine sea; instrument ratings: airplane; medical: class 2, expired; last flight review March 31, 2000; seat: left; flight hours: 9,500 total, 500 in this make and model, 9,400 as pilot in command, 10 in the last 90 days ## Weather - Conditions: Visual (VMC), Night/dark - Wind: calm - Visibility: 5 statute miles - Lowest ceiling: 7,000 ft broken - Temperature: 28 °F ## FAA reports on this event (1) The FAA's own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date (OpenAirDocs). - [Accident 20020118002129A](https://openairdocs.org/incident/20020118002129A), Jan 18, 2002: Gulstm 500S, Baker, OR, No damage. (-23) Departed tacoma narrows WA (tiw) at 1630 PST on a IFR flight plan to sun valley (sun). Over Baker, OR (bke), unforcasted heavy icing in clouds was… ## Docket (8 files) The files NTSB released with the investigation on September 15, 2002, on NTSB's docket system: https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket?ProjectID=54097. 645 KB in all. - Supplement S (item 1, .PDF, 39 KB): https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Document/docBLOB?ID=40165348&FileExtension=.PDF&FileName=Supplement%20S-Master.PDF - Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident Report, NTSB Form 6120.1 (item 2, .PDF, 282 KB): https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Document/docBLOB?ID=40380497&FileExtension=.PDF&FileName=Pilot%2FOperator%20Aircraft%20Accident%20Report,%20NTSB%20Form%206120.1-Redacted.PDF - Release of Aircraft Wreckage, NTSB Form 6120.15 (item 3, .PDF, 36 KB): https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Document/docBLOB?ID=40380498&FileExtension=.PDF&FileName=Release%20of%20Aircraft%20Wreckage,%20NTSB%20Form%206120.15-Redacted.PDF - Photo 1. Damaged area around nose wheel well. (item 4, .PDF, 124 KB): https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Document/docBLOB?ID=40165351&FileExtension=.PDF&FileName=Photo%201.%20%20Damaged%20area%20around%20nose%20wheel%20well.-Master.PDF - Photo 2. Left side of fuselage under the wing showing permanent deformation crease. (item 5, .PDF, 40 KB): https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Document/docBLOB?ID=40165352&FileExtension=.PDF&FileName=Photo%202.%20Left%20side%20of%20fuselage%20under%20the%20wing%20showing%20permanent%20deformation%20crease.-Master.PDF - Photo 3. Right side of nose showing buckling of skin. (item 6, .PDF, 41 KB): https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Document/docBLOB?ID=40165353&FileExtension=.PDF&FileName=Photo%203.%20%20Right%20side%20of%20nose%20showing%20buckling%20of%20skin.-Master.PDF - Photo 4. Buckling/Deformation of fuselage near right wing attach point. (item 7, .PDF, 40 KB): https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Document/docBLOB?ID=40165354&FileExtension=.PDF&FileName=Photo%204.%20%20Buckling%2FDeformation%20of%20fuselage%20near%20right%20wing%20attach%20point.-Master.PDF - Photo 5. Left gear oleo strut in fully compressed position. (item 8, .PDF, 42 KB): https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Document/docBLOB?ID=40165355&FileExtension=.PDF&FileName=Photo%205.%20%20Left%20gear%20oleo%20strut%20in%20fully%20compressed%20position.-Master.PDF From the NTSB's public API. Aircraft are matched to registry aircraft by N-number and event date; the registry's history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model. --- OpenAirDocs.org is an independent research project of [Contrail Labs](https://contraillabs.com/). It is not affiliated with the FAA or the NTSB. Source documents are U.S. government works in the public domain.