SEA02LA057 · Cessna 340
Vold Jones & Vold Auction Cessna 340 · Accident: main gear collapsed during landing
From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) to Idaho Falls Regional Airport (IDA)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA02LA057
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 340
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 340
- 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
- C-FFZJ
- Operator
- Vold Jones & Vold Auction
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NVTo Idaho Falls Regional Airport (IDA), Idaho Falls, ID
- 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
- 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
- Landing gear, main gear attachment › Overload
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the Canadian registered Cessna 340 reported that he touched down on runway 20 and as the aircraft was settling on the main gear the right wheel began to collapse. The pilot reported winds at the time of landing as 10 degrees right of the nose at 13 knots gusting to 17-18 knots; and an observation taken 16 minutes before the accident reported winds of 210 degrees magnetic at 14 knots. Although there were six occupants aboard the total weight of the aircraft was not known at touchdown. A post crash visual examination of the fracture surfaces of the right main landing gear bellcrank assembly (upper end), the adjustable end fitting (side brace lock), and the bellcrank clevis ears revealed separation surfaces that were grainy, 45 degree or cup and cone in nature, and which were without fatigue striations consistent with overload.
Probable cause
The overload of the right main landing gear bellcrank, adjustable end fitting and clevis ears resulting in fractures and the subsequent gear collapse.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA02LA057
- Event ID
- 20020329X00424
- Case number
- SEA02LA057
- 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, coordinates. 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: 88631f5c81d7189b249ca542162468b4142510884d72455f8b4e669b7a110d10; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:03:52.253Z.