NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ATL04LA148
Registry · N7983Q
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
CESSNA 401B
Year of manufacture
1971 · 33 years old at event
Engine
TCM CONT TSIO 520 SER (350 hp)
Seats / Engines
8 seats · 2 engines
Last airworthiness date
20031204
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S AAD88D
Registrant of record
LORENSO WALKER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The fracture of the right landing gear down lock stud which resulted in the right main landing gear collapse during landing roll.
Factual narrative
HISTORY OF FLIGHT
On July 10, 2004 at 0920 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 401B, N7983Q, registered to and operated by Parrot Air, LLC right landing gear collapsed during landing roll on runway 14 at Naples Municipal Airport, Naples, Florida. The flight operated under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident and no flight plan was filed. The airplane was substantially damaged. The pilot, pilot rated passenger and other passengers were not injured. The flight originated from Key West International Airport, Key West, Florida, on July 10, 2004 at 0850. The personal flight from Key West to Naples was uneventful, however, the pilot stated that during landing roll, there was a vibration that felt like a "wheel shimmy condition". According to the pilot, as the airplane crossed the intersection of runway 14 and runway 23, the airplane became "light". As the pilot attempted to maintain control of the airplane, the right wing collided with the runway and the airplane slid to the right and came to a stop in the grass on the south side of the intersection of runway 14 and taxiway "A", about 2,650 feet from the approach end of runway 14.
PERSONNEL INFORMATION
Review of information on file with the FAA Airman's Certification Division, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, revealed that the airman held a private pilot certificate with ratings for airplane single engine land, airplane multiengine land and instrument airplane. His pilot certificate was issued on May 25, 2004. The review of medical records on file with the FAA revealed the pilot held a third class medical certificate issued on January 28, 2004 with the limitation that the pilot must wear corrective lenses. The pilot reported having a total flight time of 607 hours with 31.4 hours in a Cessna 401B. Review of information on file with the FAA Airman's Certification Division, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, revealed that the co-pilot held a commercial pilot certificate with ratings for airplane single engine land, airplane multiengine land and instrument airplane. His last biennial flight review at the time of the accident was February 19, 2004 in a Piper Aztec, PA 23-250. The review of medical records on file with the FAA revealed the co-pilot held a third class medical dated August 2002 with the limitation that he must wear corrective lenses. The co-pilot reported having a total flight time of 1,393 hours with 115 hours in a Cessna 401B.
AIRCRAFT INFORMATION
The airplane was a fixed wing, multiengine, 1971 Cessna 401B. It's maximum gross weight was 6,210 pounds and it had 7 seats installed. The airplane was equipped with two TSIO-520E reciprocating, 300 horsepower engines manufactured by Teledyne Continental Motors. The last recorded annual inspection was conducted on December 1, 2003. The airframe total time was 6,320.3 hours and there was 31.4 hours recorded since that last inspection.
METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION
The weather reporting facility was at the Naples Municipal Airport in Naples, Florida. The 1353 Zulu surface weather observation was: winds variable at 03 knots, visibility 10 statute miles, cloud condition clear, temperature 29-degrees Celsius, dewpoint 25-degrees Celsius, and altimeter 30.10 inches of mercury. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.
WRECKAGE AND IMPACT INFORMATION
The post-accident examination of the airplane revealed damaged to the propeller, a broken drag brace, the left flap bent upwards, damage to the underbelly of the fuselage, the right main gear collapsed and the right elevator tip scraped. Also, the right wing inboard was bent, right aileron was damaged and right flap and right wing rear spar was damaged. The pilot did not report any mechanical malfunctions with the airplane prior to the accident. Further examination of the right landing gear assembly revealed that the down lock adjustment stud was broken. A visual examination of the stud fracture face disclosed that approximately 3/4 of the fracture face appeared to be old, and 1/4 of the fracture face appeared to be a fresh fracture. The maintenance history of the down lock adjustment stud was not determined nor was subsequent efforts to secure the fractured stud for further examination successful. During landing roll, a vibration was felt that simulated a "wheel shimmy condition". According to the pilot, as the airplane crossed the intersection of runway 14 and runway 23, the airplane became "light". As the pilot attempted to maintain control of the airplane, the right wing collided with the runway and the airplane slid to the right and came to a stop in the grass on the south side of the intersection of runway 14 and taxiway "A", about 2,650 feet from the approach end of runway 14. The pilot did not report any mechanical malfunctions with the airplane prior to the accident. Examination of the airplane revealed damaged to the propeller, a broken drag brace, the left flap bent upwards, damage to the underbelly of the fuselage, the right main gear collapsed and the right elevator tip scraped. Also, the right wing inboard was bent, right aileron was damaged and right flap and right wing rear spar was damaged. Further examination of the right landing gear assembly revealed that the down lock adjustment stud was broken. According to a mechanic, the visual examination of the stud fracture face disclosed that approximately 3/4 of the fracture face appeared to be old, and 1/4 of the fracture face appeared to be a fresh fracture. The maintenance history of the down lock adjustment stud was not determined nor were subsequent efforts to secure the fractured stud for further examinations successful. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2004_ATL04LA148.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.
Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2023 · Conference paper
The Value of Strong Partnerships to Build a Successful Aviation Maintenance Career Pathway Program for Transitioning Military Service Members
The aerospace industry is competing with other industries for a qualified workforce, and many of those competing industries are investing heavily in creating workforce development pipelines.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA)
From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Conference Paper
Computational Analysis of Steady State Aerodynamics of Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Configuration in Deep Stall
This study presents a computational investigation of steady state aerodynamics of the Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) configuration over a wide range …
- Semantic Scholar 2025 · Article (Applied Sciences)
Decision-Making Framework for Aviation Safety in Predictive Maintenance Strategies
The implementation of predictive maintenance (PM) in aviation presents unique challenges due to strict safety requirements, complex operational environments, and regulatory constraints.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
Low-Resource Automatic Speech Recognition Domain Adaptation – A Case-Study in Aviation Maintenance
With timeliness and efficiency being critical in the aviation maintenance industry, the need has been growing for smart technological solutions that optimize and streamline the different underlying ta…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
A New Trajectory in UAV Safety: Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for Distance Maintenance Under Wind Variations
In the field of aviation, safety is a critical cornerstone, and the operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems is deeply connected with this principle.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗