DASSAULT FALCON 20C, PUEBLO, COLO., JAN. 21, 2004–While landing on Runway 8 at Pueblo Memorial Airport (PUB) at 12:45 a.m., the Falcon twinjet veered off the runway. A wing became stuck in the snow and the right landing gear collapsed. There were no injuries, but the aircraft was substantially damaged.
The Falcon–N200JE, operated by Sierra Jet–was being flown by an ATP-rated pilot and copilot with three passengers on board. The business flight was on an IFR flight plan from St. Louis to PUB under Part 135. Night IMC prevailed at the time of the accident.
The copilot reported that the landing was fine and that he had “no problems with the runway conditions.” He said that as soon as he activated the airplane’s thrust reversers, the airplane began to yaw to the left. The pilots lost control of the airplane. Asymmetric reverser deployment is a possibility because NTSB investigators who examined the Falcon found the right thrust reverser in the stowed position and the left reverser deployed.
A witness on the airport saw the airplane approach from the west and touch down. “I heard the [thrust] reversers go on and then off, and then on again. As they came back on, for the second time, that’s when the plane started making full circles on the runway. This happened two, maybe three times before it went off the side of the runway,” he said.
The airplane came to rest in a field approximately 150 feet north and 5,000 feet down from the approach end of 10,496-foot Runway 8L. The airplane was resting upright on the right wing, left main landing gear and fuselage. The right main landing gear was folded up and bent aft into the bottom right-wing skin. The right main landing gear rear bulkhead and wing-spar box were bent inward and buckled aft.