SEA98LA073 · Aero Commander 500-A
Aero Commander 500-A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Minot International Airport (MOT)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA98LA073
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
Aero Commander 500-A
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 500
- 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
- N9382R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Minot International Airport (MOT), Minot, ND
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, lubrication, not performed
- Landing gear, main gear › Corroded
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Billings, MT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, after takeoff, the left-main landing gear would not fully retract. The pilot stated that he then extended the landing gear and performed various emergency procedures in an attempt to fully extend the left-main. The pilot was unable to get the left-main to lock in the down position and elected to land the airplane with the right-main and nosewheel extended. During the landing roll, the left-main gear collapsed and the airplane slid to a stop. Inspection of the left-main landing gear revealed that the upper-main landing gear strut's outer-body to inner-body needle bearing had failed, and the lower needle bearing was near failure. The lack of lubrication in this area was noted, along with evidence of severe corrosion development. The Manufacturer's Inspection Program for this model aircraft does not address a calendar and/or time inspection interval, or lubrication interval for the upper and lower needle bearing.
Probable cause
Failure of the main landing gear strut outer-body to inner-body needle bearing from the lack of lubrication and the development of corrosion. An inadequate manufacturer's inspection program was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA98LA073
- Event ID
- 20001211X10194
- Case number
- SEA98LA073
- 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: 04cb6a8bbf13b4b4c879fc1858ee9fa84a0ca1882bba0a96e28c21547c1b0987; retrieved 2026-09-22T17:48:41.126Z.