Just over seven years after 10 people died in the crash of a King Air carrying employees of the Hendrick NASCAR operation and several family members, another Hendrick aircraft has crashed, but this time everyone walked away. Rick Hendrick, owner of the Hendrick Motorsports team, suffered a broken rib and a broken clavicle on Monday evening when the team’s Gulfstream G150 ran off a runway in Key West, Fla. Hendrick’s wife, Linda, was treated for minor cuts and bruises, and the two pilots were checked out but they were unhurt, according to the Hendricks website. According to the Miami Herald, the jet was landing at about 7:45 p.m. when it ran off the end of a 4,800-foot runway. The jet came to a stop in a 600-foot unpaved safety overrun area, about three feet from the perimeter fence.
The jet experienced “braking issues” during the landing, according to the Hendricks website. According to the Monroe County Sherriff’s Office, the captain, James Klepper, said he had no brakes, and the first officer, Jay Luckwaldt, also tried to brake but had “no pressure.” Airport Director Peter Horton told the Miami Herald “the outcome would have been different and probably catastrophic” if not for the overrun area, which was only added to the runway in May. “Before, we had only 100 feet of overrun and then they would have gone into a salt pond and hit an embankment.” In 2006, the NTSB determined that the King Air crash was caused by the crew’s failure to properly execute a missed approach procedure. The King Air ran into a mountain near Blue Ridge Airport in Virginia.
