CHI04LA026 · Master Donald C BD5B
Master Donald C BD5B · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Cherry Capital Airport (TVC) to Cherry Capital Airport (TVC)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04LA026
- 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
- 1 · 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
Master Donald C BD5B
- Aircraft type
- Master Donald BD5
- 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
- N515KH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cherry Capital Airport (TVC), Traverse City, MITo Cherry Capital Airport (TVC)
- 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 pattern final
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was destroyed when it impacted the terrain during landing approach. The airplane came to rest about 1,000 feet short of the intended landing runway. According to the air traffic controller (ATC), the pilot taxied and called for departure at 1543. The airplane was cleared for takeoff and was to maintain a southwest heading after takeoff. The controller stated that the pilot called to return to the field at 1545. The controller asked the pilot if anything was wrong, because of the brief duration of the flight. The controller stated that at this time the pilot reported no problems. At 1546, the airplane was cleared to land. At 1547, the pilot indicated a gear problem and requested to circle the field. At 1550, the pilot informed the controller that "everything looks ok." The airplane was again cleared to land. At 1552, the airplane crashed approximately 1/2 mile south of runway 36. No pre-impact defects were found with respect to the aircraft during a post-accident examination. The reported winds were from 090 degrees at 5 knots.
Probable cause
The pilot in command not maintaining control of the aircraft during the final approach.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04LA026
- Event ID
- 20031110X01877
- Case number
- CHI04LA026
- 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: e038e688180f943cf2eac4d90e1048065a7c7200b72779e04d5a878b9875864f; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:49:48.964Z.