MKC87LA009 · Cessna 501
Cessna 501 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing
From QRS · Norfolk, VA to Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC87LA009
- 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 501
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 501
- 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
- N2BT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From QRS · Norfolk, VATo Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT), Little Rock, AR
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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, gear warning system › Disabled
- Pilot in command › Checklist, not followed
- Pilot in command › Equipment, other, not corrected
- Pilot in command › Gear extension, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Wheels up landing, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PIC STATED THAT HE HAD TO FLY A FASTER THAN NORMAL APPRCH TO THE OUTER MARKER FOR THE ILS APPRCH AS INSTRUCTED BY APPRCH CONTROL. APPRCH CNTL INDICATED THAT A BOEING 727 WAS NO. 2 FOR THE APPRCH AND THAT THE PIC SHOULD MAINTAIN 230 KTS TILL FURTHER ADVISED. THE PIC STATED THAT HE COMPLIED WITH THE RQST. THE PIC STATED THAT ONCE PAST THE OUTER MARKER HE INITIATED THE SLOW DOWN OF THE ACFT BY RETARDING THROTTLES AND DEPLOYING SPOILERS. THE DISTANCE IN WHICH TO SLOW THE ACFT IS 4.2 MILES FM THE OUTER MARKER. THE PIC STATED THAT HE DISABLED THE GEAR WARNING HORN WHEN HE RETARDED THE THROTTLES AND NEVER RESET THE WARNING HORN FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE APPROACH. THE LANDING CHECK WAS NOT COMPLETED PRIOR TO THE ACFT CONTACTING THE RWY. THE PIC STATED THAT POOR CREW COORDINATION AND THE HIGH SPD DURING THE APPRCH CONTRIBUTED TO THE GEAR UP LNDG.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC87LA009
- Event ID
- 20001213X35030
- Case number
- MKC87LA009
- 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: 571e85caa375b88d478f9d4bed881bfe7dc0c4f70ba74b2ad7d6013bd9ba4ec4; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:48:26.617Z.