Sperling Richard G LANCAIR 360 N528HZ

Summary

On 1 August 2016 at about 18:00 local time, a Sperling Richard G LANCAIR 360 registered N528HZ was involved in an accident near The Dalles, Oregon, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

1 August 2016 at 18:00

Classification

Accident

Location

The Dalles, Oregon, United States

Nearest airport

Columbia Gorge Rgnl/the Dalles (DLS)

Coordinates

45.6194, -121.1683

Aircraft

Sperling Richard G LANCAIR 360

Registration

N528HZ

Category

Airplane

Year built

2014

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

The Dalles → The Dalles

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR16FA154

1 person died.

The pilot's loss of control during an aborted landing. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's failure to extend the landing gear before touchdown.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The private pilot was landing the airplane on runway 31 in visual meteorological conditions when witnesses observed the airplane in a nose-low, steep-left-bank attitude west of the runway over grassy terrain. A second later, the airplane impacted the terrain. An examination of the accident site revealed propeller slash marks about 1,800 ft from the approach end of runway 31. The initial point of a 200-foot-long debris path was located 385 ft from the slash marks on a 235° magnetic heading, and the airplane came to rest upright at the end of the debris path with its nose oriented northeast. During the wreckage recovery, both main and the nose landing gear were found in a retracted position. During the postaccident examination, the throttle, mixture and propeller control levers were observed positioned full forward. The left and right main landing gear doors and the fuselage bottom skin exhibited numerous scratches and paint transfer consistent with the airplane's lower surface contacting the runway with the landing gear retracted. Both propeller blade tips were bent and curled aft, and the blades displayed numerous span-wise scratches from about mid span to the blade tips consistent with the propeller blades contacting the runway. The examination revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical failures or anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. It is likely that, during the landing sequence, the pilot realized that the landing gear was retracted and aborted the landing by adding full power. During the aborted landing, the pilot did not maintain control of the airplane, which rolled to the left and impacted terrain.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.