WPR23LA186 · Aviat Aircraft Inc A-1C-180 Husky
Aviat Aircraft Inc A-1C-180 Husky · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing on approach
From Olympia Regional Airport (OLM) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR23LA186
- 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
Aviat Aircraft Inc A-1C-180 Husky
- Aircraft type
- Aviat A-1
- 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
- N416AG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Olympia Regional Airport (OLM), Olympia, WATo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 4 years (built 2019)
- 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
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 and passenger reported they visually confirmed that the landing gear were up and the corresponding blue lights on the gear position indicator panel were illuminated, indicating all the gear were up during the normal approach for a water landing. About 2 to 3 ft above the water, the Landing Gear Advisory System (LGAS) gave an aural “CHECK GEAR” advisory, indicating a landing gear mismatch with the terrain. The pilot was unable to visually confirm the left nose landing gear was fully retracted (UP) and elected to go around. The airplane subsequently impacted trees on climbout and descended to impact the driveway of a residence. A postimpact fire ensued. The lake the pilot intended to land on was about 1.5 miles long from the north to south. However, it was dissected in the middle by a peninsula and a roadway bridge. The landing area chosen by the pilot took him over his house and provided an available water distance of about 3,370 ft, with rising terrain and tall trees directly at the end. If the pilot had approached over the bridge, the water distance would have increased about an additional 900 ft. The pilot reported the wind was calm at the time of the landing. It is unknown how much distance the pilot had remaining over the water when he executed the go-around. The airplane’s LGAS is advisory in nature and should not replace a visual check of the gear. However, the airplane flight manual (AFM) supplement for the float system states that anytime an annunciation occurs below 50 ft above ground level (agl), the pilot should initiate an immediate go-around, regardless of the alert. Only if the gear position is absolutely confirmed should the landing be continued. After hearing the advisory, the pilot was unable to confirm the left nose gear was up and he followed the AFM guidance by initiating a go-around. Postaccident examination of the airplane did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunction. Examination of the floats and landing gear revealed the gear was in the retracted (UP) position.
Probable cause
An erroneous landing gear warning that led to the pilot’s decision to abort the landing, which resulted in a collision with trees during a go-around.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR23LA186
- Event ID
- 20230511139292
- Case number
- WPR23LA186
- 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: 5011a508ac25b8bd155a6c977ea4e78e2303ad6a185340bc62ad3dda2ca80b3f; retrieved 2026-09-16T17:35:56.807Z.