ATL87LA133 · Beech E-55
Beech E-55 · Accident: complete gear collapsed during landing
From Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87LA133
- 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
Beech E-55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft E-55
- 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
- N713DM
- Operator
- Chris Shurburtt
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP), Greer, SCTo 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
- 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
- Complete 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 › Gear retraction, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Spartanburg, SC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT REPORTED THAT HE LOWERED THE LDG GEAR AND OBSERVED A DOWN-AND-LOCKED INDICATION ON THE LDG GEAR POSITION LIGHT ON FINAL APPCH. DURING ROLLOUT, HE FELT A SEVERE VIBRATION IN THE NOSE GEAR AND PULLED BACK ON THE YOKE IN AN ATTEMPT TO REDUCE IT. HE THEN APPLIED THE BRAKES AND THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED. AS THE ACFT SLID TO A STOP, THE RT MAIN GEAR COLLAPSED. SMOKE BEGAN TO FILL THE COCKPIT AND THE PLT EXITED THE ACFT THROUGH THE EMERGENCY EXIT. RESCUE PERSONNEL REPORTED FINDING THE ACFT RESTING GEAR-UP ON THE RWY WHEN THEY RESPONDED TO THE ACCIDENT. AN A&P MECHANIC ON-SCENE ASSISTED IN EXTINGUISHING A FIRE THAT HAD BROKEN OUT, AND ENTERED THE ACFT AFTERWARD. HE REPORTED FINDING THE GEAR SELECTOR LEVER IN THE 'UP' POSITION. HE NOTED THAT THE FLAP SELECTOR WAS IN THE 'DOWN' POSITION. POST-CRASH EXAM OF THE ACFT BY THE FAA REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PRE-EXISTING MALFUNCTION OR MECH FAILURE IN THE LDG GEAR DOWN-LOCK SYSTEM. THE INBD MLG DOORS WERE OBSERVED TO BE PARTIALLY GROUND AWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87LA133
- Event ID
- 20001213X30856
- Case number
- ATL87LA133
- 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: 173497743b6abad5b1a38b04db4a9f6c7f5c6e8a32c74b9e5e2b1831b7e4012b; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:11:58.773Z.