Despite the flight crew’s preparations for landing at the challenging private airport, the Phenom did not slow as expected after touchdown, and the pilot-in-command (PIC) steered it off the runway to avoid a cliff at the departure end. Neither pilot was injured, but the airplane was substantially damaged.
The flight crew told U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators that they did their homework before launching the repositioning flight to pick up passengers at Elk River Airport, a private airstrip located in mountainous terrain at Banner Elk, North Carolina, on Aug. 26, 2021. Among the items they reviewed were an informational “pilot’s manual” and a videotape of the approach to the runway published by the airport operator, as well as pertinent approach and landing performance data published in their Embraer 505 Phenom pilot’s operating handbook (POH).
The pilot’s manual stressed that only memb…
