SEA89LA083 · Davis Starship ALPHA
Davis Starship ALPHA · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From S67 · Nampa, ID to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA89LA083
- 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
Davis Starship ALPHA
- Aircraft type
- Davis Starship ALPHA
- 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
- N5531N
- Operator
- Gilbert E. Davis · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From S67 · Nampa, IDTo 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
- Propeller system/accessories › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT MADE A LOW PASS OVER THE AIRPORT TO CHECK THE RWY, THEN DECIDED NOT TO LAND. WHEN HE APPLIED POWER TO INITIATE A GO-AROUND, TEETH STRIPPED OFF OF THE PROP DRIVE BELT. THIS RESULTED IN AN INTERRUPTION OF POWER TO THE PROP. THE PLT MANEUVERED THE ACFT BACK TOWARD THE ARPT IN STRONG GUSTY WINDS, BUT WAS UNABLE TO LAND ON THE RWY. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT WAS EXTENSIVELY DAMAGED WHEN IT IMPACTED ON A SMALL HILL ABOUT 100' NORTH OF THE RWY. THE PLT RPRTD THE WIND WAS FROM THE SOUTH AT 15 GUSTING 20 KTS.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PROPELLER DRIVE BELT (STRIPPED TEETH). CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE: STRONG/GUSTY WINDS AND THE HILLY TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA89LA083
- Event ID
- 20001213X28435
- Case number
- SEA89LA083
- 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: de1190e256cfea09f80c47c38173541896c370bc055caf0f4dcee9dfec6a5f93; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:55:37.518Z.