Piper PA 24-260 N9360P accident near Fargo, North Dakota

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to use the published emergency procedures to manually extend the landing gear when an electrical failure precluded normal extension of the landing gear, resulting in the gear collapse during landing. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to ensure, before takeoff, that the battery was fully charged after its depletion due to a faulty alternator.

NTSB analysis

The private pilot taxied the airplane to the airport jet center to pick up a passenger for a personal flight. When leaving the jet center, the airplane's engine did not start. A ground power unit was used to charge the airplane's battery to start the engine. The pilot verified that the battery was charging.

The pilot then taxied the airplane to the runway and performed an engine run-up but did not verify before takeoff that the battery was fully charged by checking the ammeter indication. After departure and after raising the landing gear, the pilot realized that he did not receive a radio call from the tower controller and noticed that all of the radios were inoperative, which indicated a loss of electrical power. The pilot subsequently re-entered the traffic pattern and rocked the airplane's wings to provide an indication to the tower controller of the radio difficulties. The controller provided a green light to indicate that the airplane was cleared to land, and the pilot used normal procedures for the landing. However, due to the loss of electrical power, the pilot initiated an emergency gear extension but was unable to remove the cover plate over the emergency gear handle. The pilot then bent the cover back, placed the emergency extension rod into the right hole on the torque tube, and rocked the rod back and forth. The pilot checked the mirror on the airplane's wing tip, and the landing gear appeared to be down. When the airplane touched down on the runway, the landing gear collapsed, and the airplane slid off the runway and impacted a runway sign, causing substantial damage to the airplane.

The pilot did not use the emergency procedures in the airplane flight manual or abbreviated checklist to properly extend the gear despite being trained to do so. An examination of the electrical system revealed that a faulty alternator caused the electrical failure and that the battery was not fully charged before takeoff.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for CEN18LA097 for the full record.