According to the pilot, he was landing the Piper PA-34-200 at his home airport in Zephyrhills, Florida, where multiple runways were in use and multiple airplanes were operating in the traffic pattern.
He told investigators that his “pre-landing checklist got interrupted checking for traffic” and he landed with the landing gear retracted.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the underside of the fuselage.
The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. During recovery of the airplane, the landing gear operated normally when the landing gear handle was placed in the down position.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to lower the landing gear before touchdown, which resulted in a gear-up landing.
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This March 2024 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.
I thought when reading abut the accident that it was going to be another gray hair mistake. Then I looked at the handwriting and knew I was right. Except I wasn’t. This guy writes like he’s 86, not 36. I’m not against old pilots; I was in the CAP, and one of the best pilots I knew was 80 years old, sharp as a tack and was an excellent pilot. He didn’t write like this guy does.
When I see handwriting like that, I think something is wrong, It looks like this guy writes with his feet. Being close to the education sector, I know that often bad handwriting can indicate other psychological issues, so maybe forgetfulness or being distracted would be common with this pilot. I’d want to know if it was me.
Right-hand patterns for both runways, flying a low-wing aircraft (looking cross-cockpit, wing blocking your vision), the high-wing aircraft maybe he didn’t have him in sight also because of the wing blocking his vision, radios busy, etc.— it would be easy enough to get distracted, interrupt a guy’s habit pattern.