Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Stehekin, Washington 98852
Saturday, May 17, 2008 16:45 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The amphibious-float-equipped airplane departed from a paved runway for the 40-nautical-mile flight to its destination, where a water landing on a lake was to be made. The pilot did not raise the landing gear after takeoff. During the flight, the air was bumpy and turbulent, and this resulted in the gear advisory system activating numerous times. The purpose of the system is to alert the pilot of the landing gear position--up for a water landing or down for a runway landing--when the airspeed decreased below a set threshold value. The pilot disabled the system by pulling its circuit breaker because the alerts were becoming a nuisance; he intended to reset the breaker during descent, but did not do so. Upon reaching the destination, the pilot set up a 150- to 200-feet-per-minute rate of descent for a glassy water landing on the lake. With the landing gear in the down position, the airplane contacted the water and abruptly nosed over. The airplane came to rest floating inverted, suspended by the floats. The pilot reported that the day of the accident was his nineteenth consecutive duty day, including office duty and flight duty. He stated that he feels the lack of days off during the previous 19 days was a contributing factor to this accident. When asked what would have prevented the accident, the pilot suggessted consistency in using the checklist. On two flights earlier in the day he had used a written checklist; on the accident flight he did not.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The pilot's failure to retract the landing gear wheels prior to performing a water landing. Contributing to the accident were the pilot's disabling of the landing gear warning/advisory system and possible fatigue due to his work schedule.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 5/17/2008 |
| Event Day of the Week | Saturday |
| Time of Event | 1645 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | Stehekin |
| Event State | WASHINGTON |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 98852 |
| Event Date Year | 2008 |
| Event Date Month | 5 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 481821N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1203937W |
| Event Location Airport | -- |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | -- |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Pilot |
| Time of the weather observation | |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | -- |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | -- |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | -- |
| 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) | 33 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | -- |
| Variable Wind Indicator | -- |
| Wind Speed (knots) | -- |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Calm |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | -- |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Fatal |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | 2 |
| Injury Total Minor | 3 |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | 5 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 25158 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA ROC |
| NTSB Notification Date | May 17 2008 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Mar 4 2009 5:36PM |
| User who most recently changed record | coos |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Spokane, WA |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N9558Q |
| NTSB Number | LAX08FA144 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | Company VFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | Yes |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | de Havilland |
| Aircraft Model | DHC-2 MK I |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 1151 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 5370 |
| 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 | 7 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | Mar 14 2008 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 68 |
| Airframe Hours | 12070 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | C126 |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Lake Chelan Air Service, Inc. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 1328 W Woodin Ave. |
| Aircraft Owner City | Chelan |
| Aircraft Owner State | WA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 98816 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | Lake Chelan Air Service, Inc. |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | 1328 W Woodin Ave. |
| Operator City | Chelan |
| Operator State | WA |
| Operator Country | USA |
| Operator Zip code | 98816 |
| Operator Code | LCCA |
| Owner has at least one certificate | Yes - certificate holder |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Non-scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | Domestic |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Passenger Only |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | -- |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | S10 |
| Departure City | Chelan |
| Departure State | WA |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1615 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | crash at destination city |
| Destination Airport Code | -- |
| Destination City | Stehekin |
| Destination State | WA |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Landing - flare/touchdown |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Mar 4 2009 5:34PM |
| User who most recently changed record | coos |
| Since inspection or accident | Last Inspection |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | -- |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |