FAYETTEVILLE, WV, USA
N4542P
Grumman American AA-5B
One of the passengers, sitting in the right front seat, became sick as the airplane approached the airport. As the pilot turned the airplane downwind, the passenger became sick again. The pilot made a 'normal' full-flap approach, but the airplane was slightly fast on final, and touched down twice before reaching an elevated crest in the runway. The pilot applied hard braking after the second touchdown, and the airplane skidded forward. It then went over the crest, and the pilot knew that he could not stop it before reaching the end. The pilot added full power, and the airplane became airborne. The right wing struck a tree, and the airplane swung around 180 degrees before falling to the ground. The pilot had utilized Runway 03, and stated that he could not judge where the end of the runway was, due to the crest. According to the Airport/Facility Directory, there was no line of sight between the runway ends. The runway sloped upward from the departure end, until 62 feet before the departure end. Weather, recorded at an airport 30 nautical miles to the northwest, 24 minutes after the accident, included winds from 240 degrees magnetic, at 3 knots.
On November 13, 1999, about 1330 eastern standard time, a Grumman AA-5B, N4542P, was destroyed during an aborted landing at Fayetteville Airport (I89), Fayetteville, West Virginia. The certificated private pilot and the two passengers received minor injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. No flight plan had been filed for the flight, from Virginia Tech Airport (BCB), Blacksburg, Virginia, to Fayetteville. The personal flight was conducted under 14 CFR Part 91. According to the pilot, he had taken two friends on a sightseeing trip, and planned to have lunch in Fayetteville. He had never landed at the Fayetteville Airport before the accident flight. About 6 miles south of Fayetteville, the passenger sitting in the right front seat became sick. The pilot checked the sectional chart and saw that the airport's single runway was 2,000 feet long. He circled the airport, and saw a dog-leg in the runway. He further stated: "What I did not see from the air was the vertical elevation of the runway - there is no line of sight from end to end, and therefore no way to gauge how far down the runway one is during an approach. With no experience at that airport, I did not have the visual clues to indicate the distance down the runway." The pilot stated that he checked the weather at Charleston, West Virginia, and that the winds were reported as variable, at 4 knots. He then opted to land on Fayetteville's Runway 03 for better obstacle clearance. As the pilot turned the airplane downwind, the passenger became sick again. The pilot made a "normal" full-flap approach, but the airplane was slightly fast on final, and it touched down twice before reaching the crest of the runway. The pilot applied hard braking after the second touchdown, and the airplane skidded forward. It then went over the crest, and the pilot knew that he could not stop it before reaching the end of the runway. The pilot then added full power, and the airplane became airborne. However, the right wing struck a tree, and the airplane swung around 180 degrees before it fell to the ground. According to the Airport/Facility Directory, "Airport Remarks" section for Fayetteville, "No line of sight between rwy ends. Rwy 03-21 slopes upward from thld Rwy 21 to dsplcd thld." The Runway 21 displaced threshold was 62 feet from the threshold. Twenty-four minutes after the accident, weather recorded at Charleston, located 30 nautical miles to the northwest, included winds from 240 degrees magnetic, at 3 knots.
The pilot's decision to continue the landing attempt too far down the runway. A factor was the pilot's self-induced pressure to land the airplane, due to the sickness of the front seat passenger.
Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database
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