Aircraft Seemed to Stall During Landing, Skidded into Four Other Planes

On Monday, August 11, what looks to have been a stall during landing left five aircraft damaged. The four passengers traveling in the Socata TBM-850 survived, with two suffering minor injuries.

Flight tracking data shows that the TBM-850 went down while attempting to land at Kalispell City Airport in Montana. The privately operated turboprop, registered N860CA to Meter Sky LLC, was on approach to runway 13 and seemed to stall just before the threshold, then veered off to the left. This path took it into a parked Piper Cherokee, which then spun into a Citation CJ, damaging its right aileron. The TBM also struck a Swearingen SX-300 and a Cessna 172, with the post-crash fire consuming the TBM and SX-300 and causing thermal damage to the 172’s left wing.

All four occupants of the TBM, three passengers and the pilot, survived. Two sustained minor injuries and were treated on scene. No one was inside the other aircraft at the time of the accident. Local fire crews and law enforcement responded within minutes, containing the blaze before it could spread further on the ramp. Once the wreckage was secured and the runway area cleared, all aircraft were moved back to their spots.

The crash occurred at approximately 2:08 p.m. local time, following a flight from Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport in Washington. Both the FAA and NTSB have opened investigations, though preliminary reports point to a loss of control during the landing phase.

“My staff is on site at the plane crash at the Kalispell City Airport. From what we understand, no one was injured, praise God,” read a social media post from Montana Representative Ryan Zinke. “We will be assisting local authorities and the airport in any way we can as they handle this unfortunate accident.”

FMI: www.kalispell.com/202/Airport