GAA17CA303 · de Havilland DHC 6 300
de Havilland DHC 6 300 · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From Perris Valley Airport (L65) to Perris Valley Airport (L65)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA303
- 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
de Havilland DHC 6 300
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-6
- 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
- N708PV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Perris Valley Airport (L65), Perris, CATo Perris Valley Airport (L65), Perris, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 41 years (built 1976)
- 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
- 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 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
- 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 of the twin-engine, turbine-powered airplane reported that, while providing flights for skydivers throughout the day, he had a potential new hire pilot flying with him in the right seat. He added that, on the eighth flight of the day, the new pilot was flying during the approach and "approximately 200' [ft.] south from the threshold of [runway] 15 at approximately 15 feet AGL [above ground level] the bottom violently and unexpectedly dropped out. [He] believe[d] some kind of wind shear caused the aircraft [to] slam onto [the] runway and bounce into the air at a 45 to 60-degree bank angle to the right." The prospective pilot then said, "you got it." The pilot took control of the airplane and initiated a go-around by increasing power, which aggravated the "off runway heading." The right wing contacted the ground, the airplane exited the runway to the right and impacted a fuel truck, and the right wing separated from the airplane. The impact caused the pilot to unintentionally add max power, and the airplane, with only the left engine functioning, ground looped to the right, coming to rest nose down.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and right wing.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The automated weather observation system about 8 nautical miles from the accident site reported that, about the time of the accident, the wind was from 280° at 7 knots, visibility 10 statute miles, few clouds at 20,000 ft agl, temperature 86°F, dew point 45°F, and altimeter 29.81 inches of mercury. The pilot landed on runway 15.
Probable cause
The prospective pilot’s improper landing flare and the pilot’s delayed remedial action to initiate a go-around, which resulted in a runway excursion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA303
- Event ID
- 20170524X02223
- Case number
- GAA17CA303
- 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: 53c88f6da971f5f1494dc95110ac51ec073676fd66d46e4499e65e5275669cc8; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:19:05.043Z.