LAX90DUJ01 · Roger Nelson AERONICA/T
Roger Nelson AERONICA/T · Accident: main gear collapsed during landing
From Sierra Vista Municipal Airport / Libby Army Air Field (FHU) to Sierra Vista Municipal Airport / Libby Army Air Field (FHU)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90DUJ01
- 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
Roger Nelson AERONICA/T
- Aircraft type
- Roger Nelson AERONICA
- 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
- N101E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sierra Vista Municipal Airport / Libby Army Air Field (FHU), FT SIERRA VISTA, AZTo Sierra Vista Municipal Airport / Libby Army Air Field (FHU)
- 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
- Main 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
- Pilot in command › Touchdown, inaccurate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT WAS PART OF AN AIRSHOW ROUTINE DURING WHICH THE PILOT LANDS THE AIRCRAFT ON A PLATFORM MOUNTED ON A MOVING PICKUP TRUCK. THE PLATFORM HAS 10 INCH DEEP SEMICIRCULAR DEPRESSIONS WHERE THE AIRCRAFT WHEELS COME TO REST. THE PILOT MADE 3 ATTEMPTS TO LAND ON THE PLATFORM. ON THE THIRD ATTEMPT, THE WHEELS SETTLED INTO THE DEPRESSIONS. WITNESSES SAW THE AIRCRAFT IMMEDIATELY BEGIN TO PITCH FORWARD AND DOWN IN FRONT OF THE PLATFORM AS THE RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR STRUT FAILED IN AN AFT DIRECTION. REVIEW OF THE FAA ACCIDENT/INCIDENT FILES REVEALED THAT THE PILOT HAD A SIMILAR ACCIDENT IN 1988 WHILE PRACTICING THE AIRSHOW ROUTINE. NO UNUSUAL CHARACTERISTICS WERE OBSERVED ON THE FRACTURE FACE OF THE FAILED LANDING GEAR STRUT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INACCURATE PLACEMENT OF THE AIRCRAFT WHEELS INTO DEPRESSIONS IN A PLATFORM MOUNTED ON A MOVING PICKUP TRUCK DURING AN AIRSHOW PERFORMANCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90DUJ01
- Event ID
- 20001213X29619
- Case number
- LAX90DUJ01
- 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: 6373bfadd83c311e60a2b305b0c253f66524d3b203b54a9dbf2c7f3b3f47e67d; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:05:14.585Z.