While conducting touch-and-go landings and as the private pilot landed the Piper PA-28R for the third time, the right main landing gear and nose landing gear collapsed, and the right wing was partially separated from the airplane.
Post-accident examination of the airplane revealed that maintenance personnel had improperly secured an unused instrument lamp socket during recent maintenance, which allowed an electrical short of the landing gear controls.
The landing gear control circuit breaker tripped, which stopped the landing gear from fully extending while it was transitioning to the down position. It also rendered the landing gear indicators and warnings inoperative so the pilot was unaware the landing gear was not fully extended.
Probable cause: Maintenance personnel’s improper securing of an unused instrument lamp socket during recent maintenance, which resulted in an electrical short of the landing gear controls and stopped the landing gear while it was transitioning to the down position and led to the landing gear collapse.
NTSB Identification: CEN17LA150
This April 2017 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 your aircraft inside out,
It’s your passengers and your own life in your hands.
Forgot insurance you most probably won’t personally be needing it if it goes badly wrong.
I wonder who’s insurance paid for the damage to the aircraft ? the mechanic’s ins. or the aircraft’s owner’s insurance ??? I think I know, it always falls on the aircraft owner’s ins. damn, I hate it when that happens !!! now the owners ins. will go sky high, and the mechanic will skate one more time, damn. I just don’t understand why there is so much difference between an aircraft mechanic and a auto mechanic. The auto mech. is responsible for all his booboos, the aircraft mechanic is not !!! Can someone tell me why ??? It is very very unfair..
We make a mistake and skate on bye ?? We are not responsible for mistakes ?? What friggin world do you live in ??
Yeah, let’s not put any responsibility on the maintenance guys that actually caused this problem… When my A&P mounyed my prop 60 degrees off index and caused the vibration to be so bad that I could not see the end of the pitot tube, let’s blame it on the puilot for performing a poor to dangerous walk-around. I should probably apologize to my A&P after having paid him.
I’d still assign some fault to the PIC on this one. I was trained to monitor the breakers during gear, flap, trim changes etc. Had he done so he may have properly identified that there was an issue and could’ve spent some time troubleshooting. Ultimately, this could’ve been prevented with better systems knowledge, something I advocate for heavily. I just don’t think enough pilots are learning systems deeply enough.
Yes, and what about looking for ‘three green’ ? If there’s no lights assume unlocked grear, go-around and pump the gear down by hand.
yes and also check the breakers…
Even the small-seeming things can bite someone. $$$