Frazier Group Gates Learjet 35A accident
Gates Learjet 35A · Accident: undershoot during landing
From Smith Reynolds Airport (INT) to Rogers Municipal Airport-Carter Field (ROG)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW99LA103
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Gates Learjet 35A
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 35
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N508GP
- Operator
- Frazier Group
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Smith Reynolds Airport (INT), WINSTON SALEM, NCTo Rogers Municipal Airport-Carter Field (ROG)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Undershoot
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Flightcrew › Remedial action, delayed
- Pilot in command › Proper descent rate, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Proper touchdown point, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A high rate of descent developed on final approach, and the turbojet touched down hard 12 feet short of the landing threshold. The left main landing gear separated after impacting the concrete foundation supporting the runway's approach lighting system. The captain reported that 'an unusual descent rate developed on short final approach,' and he tried to arrest the rate of descent. According to cockpit voice recorder information, about 33 seconds before ground impact, the first officer (FO) commented 'ref [reference speed] ten, sinking a thousand.' The captain had 3,100 flight hours, of which a total of 50 hours were in a Learjet. The FO had 14,000 flight hours, of which 2,100 hours were in a Learjet. Several passengers stated that 'the landing was very hard.' Some of the passengers stated that they felt a 'sinking sensation or downdraft' on final approach. The winds were reported from 150 degrees at 13 knots, with gusts to 19 knots. The pilot of a single engine airplane that landed at the airport 30 minutes prior to the accident reported a 15 to 20 knot loss in airspeed while on final approach.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain the proper descent rate, his failure to attain the proper touchdown point and the fightcrew's delay in taking remedial action. A factor was the downdraft.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW99LA103
- Event ID
- 20001205X00328
- Case number
- FTW99LA103
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6e01f3570e8de286e722f2790239b049df35e608d57994ed2e4de82a568dea54; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:57:52.900Z.