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Atlas / NTSB / WPR17LA037

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR17LA037

2016-12-11 Anacortes, Washington, United States Airport · 74S None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N7998L

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

BEECH A23-24

Year of manufacture

1966 · 50 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING I0360 SER (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19661206

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AADCEF

Registrant of record

MARKHAM GERALD W

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll, which resulted in a runway excursion and separation of the left main landing gear.

Factual narrative

On December 11, 2016, about 1157 Pacific standard time, a Beech A23-19, N7998L, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident at Anacortes Airport (74S), Anacortes, Washington. The pilot was not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. The pilot reported to a Federal Aviation Administration inspector that, during landing, the airplane began to swerve to the left and continued off the runway, during which the left main landing gear separated. The inspector traveled to the accident site and examined the airplane, which sustained substantial damage to the left wing and horizontal stabilizer. The pilot did not provide a written statement, nor did he complete the NTSB Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident/Incident Report Form 6120.1; therefore, the pilot's flight experience and the airplane's maintenance history could not be determined. During the landing roll, the airplane began to swerve to the left and continued off the runway, after which the left main landing gear assembly separated from the airplane. Examination revealed substantial damage to the left wing and horizontal stabilizer. The pilot did not provide a written statement, nor did he complete the NTSB Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident/Incident Report Form 6120.1; therefore, the pilot's flight experience and the airplane's maintenance history could not be determined. The accident is consistent with the pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).

  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained
  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2016_WPR17LA037.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (runway excursion, 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.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗