CEN14LA497 · Darney GLASAIR III
Darney GLASAIR III · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From University Oxford Airport (UOX) to Austin Executive Airport (EDC)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14LA497
- 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
Darney GLASAIR III
- Aircraft type
- Darney GLASAIR
- 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
- N39RD
- Operator
- Barrett Clisby
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From University Oxford Airport (UOX), Oxford, MSTo Austin Executive Airport (EDC), Austin, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 1999)
- 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 › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he landed the airplane with about 5 knots of extra airspeed in case he encountered a surface crosswind. The airplane touched down about 6 ft right of the runway centerline. Shortly after touchdown, the nosewheel began to shimmy violently. The pilot applied maximum braking to both pedals simultaneously to reduce the speed as he applied back stick pressure, but the nosewheel continued to shimmy. The nosewheel fork then failed, and the nose landing gear dug into the runway, which caused the airplane to veer off the right side of the runway. The nose landing gear collapsed in the soft ground, and the airplane subsequently nosed over. The postaccident examination of the nose landing gear, shimmy damper, and nosewheel revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
The examination of the runway revealed a skid mark produced by the nosewheel tire, which indicated that the tire skidded back and forth while the airplane's direction continued straight down the runway. According to Federal Aviation Administration guidance, wheelbarrowing occurs when a pilot permits the airplane weight to become concentrated about the nosewheel during takeoff or landing, which can cause of a loss of directional control. One of the most common causes of wheelbarrowing during the landing roll is the simultaneous touchdown of the main wheels and nosewheel with excessive speed. The guidance states that "heavy braking should be avoided until the wings are devoid of lift and the airplane's full weight is resting on the landing gear," which is contrary to the pilot's actions. The circumstances of the accident were consistent with the airplane wheelbarrowing during the landing.
Probable cause
The pilot’s use of an improper attitude and airspeed during landing followed by excessive braking, which resulted in the airplane wheelbarrowing on the runway and a subsequent loss of directional control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14LA497
- Event ID
- 20140915X82207
- Case number
- CEN14LA497
- 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. 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: c5c13e1853cf597e10ee29e66164f3320bf393793b35d29229a693327d5d347b; retrieved 2026-09-16T01:45:31.828Z.