FTW99LA184 · Cessna T303
Cessna T303 · Accident: nose gear collapsed during landing
From George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) to West Houston Airport (IWS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW99LA184
- 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
Cessna T303
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 303
- 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
- N400T
- Operator
- George R. Eeds · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), TXTo West Houston Airport (IWS)
- 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
- 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
- Nose gear collapsed
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The nose landing gear collapsed upon landing. According to the pilot, he observed the illuminated three green landing gear position lights, after he extended the landing gear on the downwind leg. He visually confirmed that the nose landing gear was extended by referencing a mirror mounted on the left engine nacelle. The main landing gear contacted the runway, and the pilot began to 'release elevator back pressure.' Subsequently, the nose landing gear collapsed when it contacted the runway. An examination of the hydraulic landing gear system, by an FAA certified mechanic, revealed that the operating pressure was 'within manufacturer's tolerances at 850 psi and the fluid level was normal.' The reason for the collapse of the nose landing gear was not determined.
Probable cause
The collapse of the nose landing gear for an undetermined reason.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW99LA184
- Event ID
- 20001212X18788
- Case number
- FTW99LA184
- 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: 4ca1c7f06ab9bf466a6b996bb30dfcfdb344eae295065c81a168e421a7ce95b3; retrieved 2026-09-22T15:02:58.766Z.