SEA99LA103 · Piper PA-22
Piper PA-22 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during landing
From Helena Regional Airport (HLN) to Billings Logan International Airport (BIL)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA99LA103
- 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
Piper PA-22
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-22
- 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
- N3513A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Helena Regional Airport (HLN), Helena, MTTo Billings Logan International Airport (BIL)
- 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 · landing roll
- 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
- Landing gear, main gear shock absorbing strut › Separation
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that upon touchdown the aircraft began to drift left, and right rudder was applied to correct with no effect. As the drift continued, the pilot applied right brake, increasing brake pressure until he 'was pushing against the seat.' The aircraft continued to veer left, tightening its turn radius until it had rotated more than 180 degrees counter-clockwise. During the rotation, the aircraft settled to the left in line with the runway lights and came to a stop. Post-crash examination by a certified mechanic revealed that the left main landing gear shock strut tube had separated at its attach point to the left main wheel assembly. This would have allowed the release of the left main landing gear, permitting it to pivot into a flat (collapsed) position.
Probable cause
The separation of the left main landing gear shock strut for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA99LA103
- Event ID
- 20001212X19365
- Case number
- SEA99LA103
- 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: bbc22862428b2ecb04fac8dbb36c47e12ab8556a759c0b2facebce48426459e2; retrieved 2026-09-22T14:41:50.023Z.