WPR23LA134 · Harris Robert W ZENITH CH 801
Harris Robert W ZENITH CH 801 · Accident: hard landing
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR23LA134
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Harris Robert W ZENITH CH 801
- Aircraft type
- Harris Robert ZENITH CH 801
- 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
- N639BH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 17 years (built 2006)
- 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 · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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 power plant
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 reported that the airplane sustained a loss of engine thrust during the initial takeoff climb, but the engine continued to run. The pilot elected to land on the remaining runway; however, during the landing flare, the airplane landed hard on its nose and the nose landing gear collapsed. Additionally, the pilot stated that he defueled about 40 gallons of fuel from the airplane after the accident.
A visual inspection of the fuel system was conducted, and continuity was established from the main fuel tanks throughout the system; however, fuel was not observed within the fuel system. A postaccident engine ground run was accomplished, and the engine performed at various power settings. Due to a damaged propeller, the propeller governor was removed and functionally tested; it performed within manufacturer's specifications. Postaccident examination of the airplane’s engine revealed no evidence of any preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Examination of the propeller governor indicated no visible signs of damage and the governor control lever moved freely from stop to stop. The propeller governor was functionally tested and performed within the manufacturer's specifications. While it’s likely that the loss of engine thrust may have been fuel related, it could not be substantiated due to the available evidence.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper flare, which resulted in a hard landing following a reported loss of engine thrust for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR23LA134
- Event ID
- 20230320106921
- Case number
- WPR23LA134
- 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, cause areas. 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: a503bb220a74a6780e46dc4bebf8d84327138fe56f59d6990d9802f714a37cf5; retrieved 2026-09-16T17:26:33.610Z.