According to the pilot, during his approach to land at the airport in Robbinsville, New Jersey, he was distracted by an air traffic conflict.
As he monitored the conflict, he forgot to use his pre-landing checklist and subsequently failed to extend the landing gear on the Questair Venture.
He believed that he had an opportunity to catch the problem, but was concerned about the other aircraft in the traffic pattern. The airplane landed gear up and slid to a stop on the runway.
The FAA inspector who responded to the scene confirmed the structural damage to the belly of the airplane.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to extend the landing gear prior to landing, which resulted in substantial damage to the lower fuselage. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to utilize the aircraft checklist.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This October 2021 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.
Brings back fond memories.
Flying with my family I asked them to yell out Gump. My 4 children and Wife would yell “Gump Daddy, Gump”.
Back in the my day we would accept our mistakes, learn from them, and not make pathetic excuses. Hopefully this person never makes it to the airlines. It’s time to hang it up and stick to online flight sims.
My Grandfather was a Top Gun instuctor and a test pilot and flew drunk. He never did something so stupid!!!
“To err is human, to forgive Devine.😊🙏
That is why there are checklists during my USAF career as a mechanic and not a pilot we still had checklists that were meant to be followed
Gumpf
Gas, undercarage, mixture, prop, flaps. A landing pattern habit to repeat to yourself verbably every
landing.
Now that’s a very big opppsss I wouldn’t want to find out what FAA is going to do to him. They may even pull his ticket. For people that don’t know what his ticket that’s his pilot’s license. At all times you must be in control of your plan that includes you doing the most important last part of your sheet that tells you to put down you landing gear. His lucky he’s hear to tell what happened.
Check list. Should always be used
Distraction can kill
I landed my Mooney gear up about 20 years ago. Fatigue was the culprit. It was night, I had not slept the night before. My gear warning horn was intermittent, sometimes it would sound when the throttle was pulled back, sometimes it wouldn’t. It was something I haven’t got around to fix.(it needed the micro switch replaced) I was intending to land at the small evergreen airport about 5 miles north of Portland Oregon. It was night and after aborting my approach at this tiny runway, I decided to land at Portland and move my plane to Evergreen in the morning. So I retracted the gear and went back to Portland. The red warning light on my old Mooney is actually faded orange. When I did the GUMP checklist l looked at that light and it seemed the correct color. (brain fade) It wasn’t!!! The horn didn’t sound either. I closed down Portland international airport (a hub airport!) for about an hour on a Saturday night. Not my best day.
My father was a Navy F6F pilot in WWII and at the immediate end was flying in Navy Reserves at NAS Los Alamitos, only about one or two hours per week and on the weekends. As he told me, flying a plane so complex and powerful and distracted by now mostly a civilian life could be a cause for gear ups and other mishaps. His gear up was prevented by a controller calling “GEAR!!”
Gumps on downwind and 2nd check mid final grn lites and horn super 21 mechanical gear
I’m not even a pilot, just on old man driving my own car under VFR and worrying about my own personal weight and balance. But in my car, I keep the gear down all the time! I admire you guys. Be safe.
It’s called a “career check”. It’s something you say out loud even if you’re single pilot. It’s done at 200 feet AGL (minimums).
“gear down 3 green no red”, flaps set, cleared to land.
Every pilot should do this on every landing.
It could be the difference in your career.
What type of plane was it? Size?
Indeed.
I use a verbal checklist when I trailer my boat!
Well my military unit almost had a KC-135 land gear up till the civilian tower a mile across the field alerted the crew on short final. Sheesh! Nobody’s immune.
I would think that if going to land, that would be one of the most important things on your mind before landing.
Ok I am not a pilot truth be know my x husband was, but what I would like to know is what was the “air traffic conflict” that you say “distracted” you that lead to this unfortunate mistake all about?
You could talk to your ex about in air distractions , but they happen to ALL us pilots . ALWAYS use a checklist !
From reading the NTSB form, this was at a small uncontrolled airfield. Three small planes were in the pattern to land, the reporting pilot was #2. When #1 went extended on downwind leg before turning to base, he followed, but #3 behind him cut short to base, cutting off both other planes.
There are numerous tips and tricks pilots can use in order to prevent forgetting to extend landing gear. Here they are:
1. Feel the attitude changes of gear extension, trim, and call out the feeling and trimming (even when alone).
2. Recheck gear down on short final even after complete GUMPS check.
3. Know from multiple training programs that flying with instructors and distractions in the pattern are major risk factors for forgetting to put gear down. Make the mental connection and take necessary action.
4. Enlist passengers to double check that you put gear down before landing. Brief them on sterile cockpit rules.
5. Call out gear check even when you fly fixed gear airplanes. This standardizes your procedure, so you don’t skip the check because you got used to flying the fixed gear airplane.
6. Take regular ground training and participate in FAA Wings.
I think the gear should come down automatically it would be simple to do. But since it’s aviation it would cost millions there are a lot of gear up .and it is easy to get overwhelmed .if not automatically back up..I havent had one yet .but I can see how busy things get quick.
No GUMPS?
OOOOOPS!
Some gear warning horns are hard to hear with a good NC headset.
I added an aural gear warning system to the headset.
Not pilot error, rather pilot stupidity.
Where was Local Control in the tower when this plane was cleared to land? Scan of the runway and gear check should have been issued with landing clearance.
N87 is a small, uncontrolled field. No control tower.
So, no gear up warning horn would create a loud distraction greater than the original distraction?
I can certainly understand how this can happen; however, I am curious about one thing in particular: Along with myself, how many other pilots out there have developed the habit, over many years of operations, of checking and rechecking, several times each landing, to ensure that you do, in fact, have all the gears down and locked? I can’t specifically remember a single time that I landed and then, with a startling rush, suddenly realized that I had forgotten to verify that the LG was down. I often check a half dozen times or more before touchdown. Who else finds himself doing this?
I try to do a final check on short final. I put the gear down midfield downwind. I have a GUMP checklist taped on my panel as a reminder. I miss full prop at times and yell at myself for missing it,
I teach pilots to make the gear check an event. Verbal call-outs “3 green” downwind, base, and final. Even when you’re by yourself.
You are the type of pilot I want flying any plane I am in. Absolutely nothing wrong with checking yourself over and over. RESPECT
Another story that makes no sense. So little information, you can’t even comment.
GA, you can do better than this.
Well, you could read the NTSB file—it says more.