Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Port Elsner Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
White Salmon, Washington 98672
Thursday, February 16, 2006 8:15 PST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
A witness said she heard a loud engine noise and turned to see a bright yellow airplane taking off. Seconds later, she said the noise stopped, and she turned to see the airplane "crash." The airplane was not equipped with shoulder harnesses; the pilot was critically injured with a broken eye socket, broken cheekbone, bruises on the brain, and possible broken vertebrae. The Sheriff's Deputy said that he arrived on scene approximately 30 minutes after the accident. He said "the temperature was below freezing, the sun was shining and a heavy layer of frost was on the ground. Frost was melting off the aircraft and water was dripping onto the ground." He said it had rained heavily the past several days and he was told that the airplane had been parked outside. On February 17, 2006, a FAA inspector and a representative of the airplane's manufacturer went to the scene and found the airplane approximately 500 feet west of the departure end of runway 17 of a private grass 1,600 foot long airstrip. They found the fuselage nose down with both wings bent forward and compression damage to both outboard leading edges. The right wing root attachment points had separated. The wing strut attachment points were secure. The empennage was broken aft of the cabin area, and rotated 90 degrees toward the right wing; the right horizontal stabilizer was holding the back portion of the fuselage off the ground. The airplane had an STC engine conversion to a Lycoming O-320, 150 horse powered engine. Water was found in the carburetor and approximately 1-2 tablespoons of frozen water were found in the fuel strainer. Minimal rotational signatures were noted on the propeller. Due to the serious nature of the pilot's injuries, he was not interviewed and a written statement was never obtained. FAA pilot medical application records indicate that the pilot had more that 23,000 hours of flight experience.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control and the subsequent inadvertent stall/spin to the ground. Contributing factors were the inadequate preflight by the pilot, and the airplane's fuel contamination by water.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 2/16/2006 |
| Event Day of the Week | Thursday |
| Time of Event | 815 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Standard Time |
| Event City | White Salmon |
| Event State | WASHINGTON |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 98672 |
| Event Date Year | 2006 |
| Event Date Month | 2 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 454808N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1212846W |
| Event Location Airport | Port Elsner Airport |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | 75WA |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 610 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 753 Pacific Standard Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 110 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | DLS |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 247 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 17 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PST |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | -4 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -7 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 0 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 0 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30.29 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Serious |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | 1 |
| Injury Total All | 1 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 20685 |
| NTSB Notification Source | Portland, OR, FAA FSDO |
| NTSB Notification Date | Feb 16 2006 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Nov 29 2006 12:45PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\johb |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Portland, OR, FAA FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N5611E |
| NTSB Number | SEA06LA053 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Destroyed |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Cessna |
| Aircraft Model | 150 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 17111 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 1600 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 2 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Unknown |
| Date of Last Inspection | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Bernard M. Elsner |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 83 Oak Ridge Rd. |
| Aircraft Owner City | White Salmon |
| Aircraft Owner State | WA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 98672 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | -- |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | -- |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | -- |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Personal |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | 75WA |
| Departure City | White Salmon |
| Departure State | WA |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 815 |
| Departure Time Zone | PST |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | dest & departure same, accident can occur anywhere |
| Destination Airport Code | 75WA |
| Destination City | -- |
| Destination State | -- |
| Destination Country | -- |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Takeoff - initial climb |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Aug 31 2006 6:16PM |
| User who most recently changed record | STAM |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 17 |
| Runway Length | 1600 |
| Runway Width | 40 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |