Pilot Debrief

Cessna R182 near Santa Teresa, NM — 2012-06-21

Final reportCEN12LA387
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Date
2012-06-21
Location
Santa Teresa, NM, USA
Airport
5T6
Aircraft
Cessna R182
Registration
N4702R
Category
Airplane
Highest injury
None
Fatalities
0
Phase of flight
Landing

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to ensure that the landing gear was down and locked before landing.

NTSB narrative

According to the pilot, before turning onto a base leg in the airport traffic pattern, he lowered the landing gear and selected the flaps to 10 degrees. He reported that the green landing gear position light illuminated after the landing gear extended and that, while on the base leg, when he selected the flaps to 20 degrees he visually confirmed that the left main landing gear was extended. Shortly after touchdown, the left main landing gear began to retract, followed by the right main landing gear. The airplane then veered off the left side of the runway. During the postaccident recovery, as the airplane was lifted off the ground, the main landing gear fully extended, without electrical power supplied, into the down-and-locked position. The landing gear was checked and all three down-lock assemblies appeared to be properly engaged. The airplane was subsequently placed onto jack stands, and no anomalies were observed as the landing gear was cycled several times using the airplane's electro-hydraulic system. Testing of the landing gear position indicating system confirmed that the green position light would not illuminate until all three landing gear were fully extended into a down-and-locked position. The postaccident examination did not reveal any mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have resulted in the main landing gear collapse. In the absence of landing gear extension system mechanical failures or malfunctions, and given the collapse of the main landing gear upon touchdown, it is likely that the landing gear was still transitioning into to a fully extended position at touchdown. Although contrary to the pilot’s account of the accident sequence, the most likely accident scenario is that the pilot did not extend the landing gear with sufficient time to ensure that it fully extended before landing.

Analysis

Primary failure mode
Mechanical failure
First missed decision gate
Pilot could have aborted landing after observing gear issues.

NTSB coding

Evidence available

  • 7 docket documents
View NTSB final reportView NTSB docket

Docket documents7

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