Mooney M20K N5254G accident near Venice, Florida

Probable cause

A failure of the normal landing gear extension system for reasons that could not be determined due to damage to the system and the pilot's failure to ensure that the landing gear was down and locked before touchdown. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s distraction due to weather and traffic.

NTSB analysis

The private pilot approached the destination airport at the conclusion of the visual flight rules flight while receiving traffic advisory services from an air traffic controller. The pilot could not recall at what point during the approach he extended the landing gear but postulated that he may have done so about 10 miles from the airport. As the pilot was "dodging clouds" during the approach, he heard another pilot, who was also heading to the same airport, request a "pop-up" instrument flight rules clearance from the controller due to sea fog in the area. The controller then advised the accident pilot to follow the other airplane to the airport. During the approach to the runway, the accident pilot reduced the throttle to avoid overtaking the other airplane, and the landing gear warning horn activated. He then applied a small amount of throttle, and the horn stopped. The subsequent landing was normal until the landing flare, when the pilot heard a scraping noise. The airplane slid along the runway on its belly for 400 ft before coming to a stop. Postaccident examination of the landing gear revealed that the landing gear circuit breaker was open and that the landing gear position selector was in the down position. The main landing gear had extended minimally out of their respective wells, suggesting that the landing gear extension cycle had at least started but was not successfully completed. During recovery from the runway, the airplane was placed on jacks, and the landing gear was lowered using the emergency gear extension without incident. Damage to the landing gear extension system precluded further functional testing.

Based on the available information, it is possible that at some point during the flight, the pilot moved the landing gear selector handle to the down position, but the landing gear did not extend. When the pilot heard the landing gear warning horn activate as he reduced throttle, he should have realized that the landing gear was not in a safe position for landing. It is likely that his fixation on the weather conditions and the other airplane landing at the airport distracted him from completing this task. Had the pilot diverted to another nearby airport where the weather was better, he could have performed additional troubleshooting and likely could have performed a successful emergency extension of the landing gear without the distraction of the weather and other traffic.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA18LA058 for the full record.