ATL05CA059 · Ecker Starduster 1
Ecker Starduster 1 · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water during landing
From West Memphis Municipal Airport (AWM) to General Dewitt Spain Airport (M01)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL05CA059
- 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
Ecker Starduster 1
- Aircraft type
- Ecker STARDUSTER 1
- 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
- N74EK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From West Memphis Municipal Airport (AWM), West Memphis, ARTo General Dewitt Spain Airport (M01), Millington, TN
- 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
- On ground/water 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, normal brake system › Malfunction
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, during the landing rollout on the grassy area on the left side adjacent to runway 17, the airplane began to veer to the left. The pilot said full right rudder was applied to stop the left turn, but as the airplane decelerated the right rudder input was ineffective. The pilot decided to apply right brake to stop the left turn, however when right brake was applied the airplane nosed over. The pilot reported no flight control or mechanical anomalies with the airplane. Examination of the airplane revealed the upper left wingtip, and vertical stabilizer were buckled. Examination of the left wheel pant revealed clumps of wet grass were present between the pant and wheel. During further examination of the left wheel it was revealed that the left brake caliper was hanging on the rotor and restricting movement. The history of the brake system and maintenance records were not available for review. A review of the General Dewitt Spain Airport map revealed that there is no published grass landing strip for the airport. During a telephone interview with the pilot, he stated that the grass-landing surface he landed on was adjacent to the runway, and although it was being used as a landing strip it was not a designated landing area.
Probable cause
The malfunction of the left main landing gear wheel brake during landing roll on a grassy area, resulting in a nose over.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL05CA059
- Event ID
- 20050404X00400
- Case number
- ATL05CA059
- 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: 3875aa509e5cfc91466d212885bd1e6e2c2846bf60898f5553c255e8d556368e; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:14:18.964Z.