Beech 35-C33 N829T accident near Wilmington, North Carolina

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to ensure that the landing gear was in the down and locked position before touchdown, which resulted in a landing with the gear in transit.

NTSB analysis

The commercial pilot was conducting a short personal flight. According to the pilot, after takeoff, he began receiving faulty airspeed indications and requested an expedited landing from air traffic control because the airplane "did not feel right." The pilot reported that he kept the landing gear fully extended. He also reported completing the before landing checklist and stated that, during the touchdown, the landing gear "collapsed."

Postaccident examination of photographs of the airplane found that the main landing gear was partially extended and that the nose landing gear had collapsed. Postaccident examination of the landing gear system revealed that the main landing gear inner doors were in the open position and had been damaged by contact with the runway surface. Scrubbing was found on the sides of the main tires. The nose landing gear was in its wheel well, and the actuating rod was bent, indicating that the nose gear was not fully locked down when it contacted the pavement. The landing gear system circuit breaker was found tripped, which was likely the result of an electrical overload caused by the landing gear extension being physically impeded. There was no evidence of a preimpact malfunction, and a mechanic was able to manually extend the landing gear. Thus, the evidence was consistent with an attempted landing with the landing gear in transit rather than fully extended.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA15LA273 for the full record.