Questair VENTURE N36V

Summary

On 4 September 2011 at about 16:47 local time, a Questair VENTURE registered N36V, operated by Questair Ventures LLC, was involved in an accident near Memphis, Tennessee, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

4 September 2011 at 16:47

Classification

Accident

Location

Memphis, Tennessee, United States

Nearest airport

Memphis International (MEM)

Coordinates

35.0386, -89.9728

Aircraft

Questair VENTURE

Registration

N36V

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Questair Ventures LLC

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Memphis → Memphis

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA11CA482

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's inability to maintain directional control during landing with a flat tire. Contributing to the accident was the failure of the left main landing gear tire for undetermined reasons.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

According to the pilot, the airplane accelerated as expected during the takeoff roll, and, at rotation, he heard a loud "pop" and felt a "thump." He said that he and the copilot agreed that the airplane probably had experienced a main landing gear tire blowout. The pilot flew by the air traffic control tower, but the controllers were unable to assess the damage, so the pilot requested a return to a different runway for landing. The airplane touched down in the center of the 150-foot-wide runway, but the pilot was unable to maintain directional control with full application of right rudder and right brake. The airplane departed the left side of the runway and struck a concrete drainage culvert, which resulted in substantial damage to the airframe. A postaccident examination of the left main landing gear tire revealed evidence of a puncture and tearing around its circumference but no foreign objects associated with foreign object damage (FOD). No postaccident FOD check of the runway was conducted by the airport authority. The examination also revealed that the inboard half of each main landing gear tire displayed significant wear, no remaining tread, but no chord visible. The cause of the flat tire could not be determined.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.