CHI91DEM03 · Huddleston/Becktold GLASAIR
Huddleston/Becktold GLASAIR · Accident
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI91DEM03
- 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
Huddleston/Becktold GLASAIR
- Aircraft type
- Huddleston/becktold GLASAIR
- 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
- N270KT
- Operator
- Patrick L. Quain · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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
- Other
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Flare, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE OWNER/PLT & AN INSTRUCTOR (CFI) WERE ON A FLT TO CHECKOUT THE OWNER IN THE ACFT. WHILE CYCLING THE LANDING GEAR IN FLT, THEY WERE UNABLE TO GET A SAFE DOWN-&-LOCKED INDCN BY USING THE NORMAL SYS. A DOWN-&-LOCKED INDCN WAS OBTAINED BY USING THE MANUAL SYS. THE CFI RECOMMENDED THAT DRG AN APCH FOR LANDING, THE ENGINE BE SHUT DOWN TO MINIMIZE DAMAGE TO THE ENG, IN THE EVENT THAT THE LANDING GEAR SHOULD COLLAPSE. THE OWNER AGREED, BUT SUGGESTED THAT THE CFI MAKE THE LANDING. THE CFI TOOK CONTROL OF THE ACFT. HE RPRTD THAT HE SHUT DOWN THE ENG WHEN THE ACFT WAS ABOUT 500' AGL 'OVER THE NUMBERS.' AN EXCESSIVE SINK RATE DEVELOPED, AND THE CFI TRIED TO FLARE THE ACFT FOR LANDING, BUT IT TOUCHED DOWN HARD. THE RGT MAIN GEAR LEG WAS JAMMED INTO THE WING, WHICH PIERCED A FUEL CELL & CREATED A FUEL LEAK. THE FUEL IGNITED DRG THE LANDING SKID & THE ACFT'S RGT SIDE WAS EXTENSIVELY DAMAGED BY FIRE.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT (CFI) TO MAINTAIN SUFFICIENT AIRSPEED ON FINAL APPROACH TO FLARE THE AIRCRAFT FOR LANDING. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE LANDING GEAR MALFUNCTION, AND THE CFI'S IMPROPERLY PLANNED APPROACH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI91DEM03
- Event ID
- 20001212X16416
- Case number
- CHI91DEM03
- 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: 38d73df97e6138957371d673ea93972a1c6b02f3a887bb38257809a114919fe8; retrieved 2026-09-23T04:47:01.162Z.