Accidents
Error in Speed, Distance Caused 2023 HondaJet Excursion
Pilot and passengers escaped without injuries
HondaJet in relation to runway
© Dorchester County Sheriff’s Department

Improper landing speed and distance calculations by the pilot caused a HondaJet HA-420 to overrun a wet runway at Summerville Airport (KDYB) in South Carolina on May 18, 2023, according to the NTSB’s final report. The pilot and five passengers were uninjured, but the aircraft was substantially damaged after it ran off the end of the runway, slid down an embankment, and caught fire.

Registered as N255HJ, the aircraft departed Wilkes County Airport (KUKF) at 11:29 p.m. on an IFR flight and landed at KDYB around 12:14 a.m. in night visual conditions on a wet, 5,000-foot asphalt runway. The pilot told investigators he had used the aircraft’s cockpit display unit (CDU) to calculate a landing reference speed (Vref) of 119 to 120 knots and believed the runway length was sufficient.