N128W

On February 2, 2018, about 1105 Pacific standard time, a Beech 95, N128W, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident at the North Las Vegas Airport (VGT), Las Vegas, Nevada. The flight instructor and student pilot were not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 instructional flight.

The flight instructor stated that they had flown for 2 hours prior to the accident flight. On the accident portion of the flight, they were in-bound on a simulated engine out for the instrument landing system and instructed to circle left downwind for runway 30L. The right throttle was set for 1,200 rpm, and the student was using the left throttle to adjust for pitch (airspeed) and altitude. He monitored the engine instruments the entire time and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. As they lined up on base, he noticed they were getting slow (90 miles per hour (mph)), and low (3 red on the PAPI (precision approach path indicators)). He advised the student to add power on the good engine (left) and bring the nose down. When the student applied left throttle, nothing seemed to happen. To which the flight instructor replied, “you have both throttles, go around….” They were about 200 ft above ground level when the student applied full throttle to both engines, the airplane continued to sink, and the airplane entered Vmc (minimum controllable airspeed) to the left. The left wing struck the runway first, and they skidded off the runway and struck a taxiway sign. The flight instructor further reported that he should have asked for a go around or took over the controls to execute a go around when he noticed the airspeed at 90 mph instead of telling the student they were low and slow.

The airplane was inspected by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); however, the full report was not made available to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The FAA made a statement that there was no mechanical problem identified, and a report would be forthcoming. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing.

Repeated attempts to gain additional information from the owner/operator were made without response to the NTSB.