WPR11FA093 · Piper PA46-500TP
Piper PA46-500TP · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Reno Tahoe International Airport (KRNO) to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (KPHX)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR11FA093
- 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
Piper PA46-500TP
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA46
- 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
- N5365D
- Operator
- Craig S. Gaylord · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reno Tahoe International Airport (KRNO), Reno, NVTo Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (KPHX), Phoenix, AZ
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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 on ground
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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 stated that, during the landing roll, the airplane veered right concurrent with him placing the propeller into reverse. The pilot attempted to realign the airplane with the runway, but it exited the right side of the paved surface. During the runway excursion, the left main landing gear collapsed, and the left wing contacted the ground. Postaccident examination of the nose landing gear steering assembly revealed no anomalies; the nose landing gear steering travel and rake angle were within manufacturer’s prescribed limits. Examination of the 8-ply nose landing gear tire revealed that the tire was underinflated at 43 psi, whereas the manufacturer’s recommended pressure is 70 psi. According to a Customer Information Letter that addressed nose landing gear steering concerns, the manufacturer stated that a nosewheel tire inflated to 70 psi allowed better steering control forces and warned that an underinflated tire could increase forces associated with steering. The pilot reported that he did not check the tire inflation pressure during the preflight.
Probable cause
The pilot did not maintain directional control during the landing roll. Contributing to the accident was low nosewheel tire pressure.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11FA093
- Event ID
- 20110110X23711
- Case number
- WPR11FA093
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 3f0180070dbf93b1988222a4df670d559ee844a91b16c376578826836bcb37e7; retrieved 2026-09-15T15:40:57.155Z.