WPR17LA030 · Aero Commander 690 UNDESIGNAT
Air West Aero Commander 690 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Safford Regional Airport (SAD) to Scottsdale Airport (SDL)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR17LA030
- 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
Aero Commander 690 UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 690
- 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
- N9175N
- Operator
- Air West
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Safford Regional Airport (SAD), Safford, AZTo Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, AZ
- Aircraft age
- About 43 years (built 1973)
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during the landing roll, he commanded reverse thrust and lightly applied brake pressure. While he was reaching for the condition levers to bring the propellers back to low rpm, the airplane suddenly veered to the right. The pilot applied left braking action and adjusted the engines to low rpm, but the airplane continued to veer toward the right side of the runway and a runway sign. The pilot reported that he could have either gotten more aggressive with the corrective actions and hope to avoid striking the sign, or allow the airplane to exit the runway onto what he thought was a hard, smooth surface. The pilot chose to exit the runway surface, and the airplane entered the runway safety area, which had a rock layer that consisted of river rock. The landing gear sunk deep into the rocks, which quickly slowed the airplane to a stop. Several rocks penetrated the fuselage, which resulted in substantial damage.
A postaccident examination of the steering and brake system revealed no evidence of a mechanical failure or malfunction that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s loss of directional control during the landing roll, which resulted in the runway excursion onto the rock-covered runway safety area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR17LA030
- Event ID
- 20161205X74357
- Case number
- WPR17LA030
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2016-12-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b79f59b24ae3eca1f9afe880b26d5ec0f96b2f0f6668d53dd5fd6cff07e7c403; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:52:45.047Z.