The Mooney M20TN pilot reported that during the sixth and final landing of the day, he was aware of another airplane in the landing pattern at the airport in Yakima, Wash., that disrupted his routine.
He did a mental checklist, and thought that the landing gear was down, however it was not.
The airplane subsequently landed with the landing gear retracted, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage.
The NTSB determined the probable cause as the pilot’s failure to configure the landing gear for landing.
NTSB Identification: WPR14CA287
This June 2014 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Learn from the misfortune of others
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Only one phrase said all. Never skip any checklist item an BE sure that the task HAVE been done.
On final in a Boeing 727, we got distracted and had to abandon the approach and make a 360 and re-enter final. The gear had been down and it was retracted as were some of the flaps as we did the 360. As we entered final again, I called for landing flaps and the warning horn went off. I had forgotten that we had retracted the gear. This was the only time in 30 years of airline flying that I forgot the gear, but thankfully the warning system alerts pilots with their heads up their butts that the gear isn’t down anytime the flaps are lowered past the take off flap position. I guarantee it can happen to anyone as in this case there were 3 heads in the cockpit and it got passed all 3 of us.
To avoid landing with the gear up, just get in the habit of saying “Three in the Green” at the key points in the landing pattern or approach. For instance when VFR, just say the magic words on downwind, crosswind and short final. When IFR: at the outer marker, or equivalent and then on short final.