NTSB Factual Report

On September 28, 2003, approximately 1330 mountain daylight time, a Beech T-34 (A-45) , N234KC, impacted the terrain just short of runway 34 at McCall Municipal Airport, McCall, Idaho. The private pilot and his passenger received serious injuries, and the aircraft, which is owned and operated by the pilot, sustained substantial damage. The 14 CFR Part 91 personal pleasure flight, which departed the same airport about two hours earlier, was being operated in visual meteorological conditions. No flight plan had been filed.

According to the pilot, while returning to the airport after the two hour flight, he began monitoring the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) when he was a little over five miles from the airport. He then sequenced himself into traffic on a left downwind for runway 34. The aircraft in front of him was an Aviat Husky that was following a De Havilland Beaver. Just after he rolled out on final with his gear down and his flaps retracted, the pilot noticed that the Beaver was pulling off of the runway. He therefore continued on final at about 70 knots for what was planned to be a no-flap full-stop landing. As he descended on final, the pilot noticed that the Husky had suddenly slowed considerably as it approached the threshold, and then ultimately touched down right at the approach end of runway 34. The pilot elected to continue his approach, but as he reached short final it appeared that the Husky would not be exiting the runway before he touched down, so he decided to execute a go-around. He therefore began to add full power, but just as he was doing so, the left wing suddenly dropped and the aircraft lost about 50 feet of altitude. As the engine revved to full power, the pilot was able to get the wings level and stop the altitude loss, but immediately thereafter the right wing dropped and the aircraft fell another 20 feet onto a gravel blast pad about 200 feet short of the runway threshold. After impacting the terrain, the aircraft slid about 300 feet, coming to rest on the runway pavement about 100 feet past the runway threshold.

According to the pilot, his airspeed was between 65 to 70 knots the last time he looked at it, which is 10 to 15 knots above the aircraft's flaps-up stall speed. Witnesses reported that the wind was essentially calm, and the pilot reported that he did not feel any evidence of a wind gust or wind shear type turbulence. The pilot further stated that he had performed hundreds of intentional stalls during his 3,800 hours in this model aircraft, and he did not feel that this event was initiated by a stall. He said that he did not feel any of the shudder or vibration normally associated with a stall, and he did not see the stall light illuminate. He further stated that it felt to him like he had entered some "freaky air," and that he may have encountered some disturbance created by the Beaver at precisely the moment he was adding power to initiate the go-around.

A post-accident inspection of the aircraft did not reveal any evidence of an engine malfunction or flight control anomaly that might have contributed to the accident sequence.

NTSB Probable Cause

The inadequacy of the pilot's remedial action taken in an attempt to fly out of an encounter with the wake vortex turbulence created by a preceding aircraft while on short final to land. Factors include calm winds in the area of the final approach course, and the pilot's inadvertent encounter with wake vortex turbulence.