Berrick GP-4 N54WB

Summary

On 1 May 1999 at about 19:00 local time, a Berrick GP-4 registered N54WB was involved in an accident near Plattsmouth, Nebraska, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

1 May 1999 at 19:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Plattsmouth, Nebraska, United States

Nearest airport

Plattsmouth Municipal (PMV)

Coordinates

41.0009, -95.8894

Aircraft

Berrick GP-4

Registration

N54WB

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CHI99LA137

2 people died.

aircraft control and airspeed not maintained by the pilot-in-command. A factor to the accident was the inadvertent stall.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

During the initial climb, the airplane was witnessed to pitch nose-down, enter a spin, and impact terrain. According to a pilot, who was current in the accident airplane, the altitude and location where the airplane entered the stall/spin would be consistent with where the landing gear would have been in retraction. According to pilots, who had flown in the accident airplane, the gear retraction procedure was to climb to 1,500 feet above ground level, slow the airplane to within 10 MPH of the stall (power-off, gear-down, flaps-retracted) speed, and then retract the landing gear by the manually-actuated lever. According to pilots, who had flown in the accident airplane, when the airplane was held in a stalled condition it would rapidly pitch down and bank sharply to the left. The designer of the airplane stated that during a power-on stall the wing would drop, 'almost vertical,' and that 300 to 500 feet would be lost during the recovery from the stall.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.