What happened
The aircraft touched down on the runway with the landing gear retracted. The pilot had previously pulled the circuit breaker for the landing gear warning system because it was activating during normal power settings. He inadvertently failed to reset this circuit breaker before the landing phase, which resulted in no warning being received that the gear was not extended.
The investigation
The investigation confirmed that the landing gear warning system was functional prior to the flight. The pilot admitted to disarming the system by removing the circuit breaker. No mechanical failure of the landing gear mechanism itself was cited as a primary factor; the issue stemmed from the electrical isolation of the warning logic.
Findings
The critical error was the failure to restore the circuit breaker after its temporary removal. This action effectively blinded the cockpit to the unsafe configuration of the landing gear during the final approach and touchdown phases. The pilot's decision to silence the alarm without addressing the underlying cause or ensuring a manual check led directly to the hard landing.
Safety message
Pilots must never disable safety warning systems to mask normal operational alerts. If a warning is persistent, the root cause should be diagnosed on the ground. Temporary circuit breaker removal requires strict checklist adherence to ensure restoration before flight operations resume.