18 Jan 2009: BEECH A36 — Mesa Pilot Development

18 Jan 2009: BEECH A36 (N8074P) — Mesa Pilot Development

No fatalities • Farmington, NM, United States

Probable cause

Collapse of the landing gear during landing due to the incorrect installation of the landing gear actuator. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's failure to initiate the abnormal procedures checklist prior to landing.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On January 17, 2009, approximately 1900 mountain standard time, a Beech A36, N8074P, was substantially damaged after exiting the side of the runway 25 at the Four Corners Regional Airport (FMN), Farmington, New Mexico. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The personal flight was being conducted under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 91 without a flight plan. The private pilot, the sole occupant of the airplane, was not injured. The local flight originated from FMN at 1850.

According to a statement provided by the pilot, the accident occurred on the sixth landing. After positioning the gear handle in the "DOWN" position, the pilot stated that the gear sequence sounded normal, but was "faster than normal." The three position lights did not activate, so the pilot radioed the control tower and requested a visual inspection of the landing gear. After performing a low approach, the tower controller responded that the landing gear appeared to be down. The pilot proceeded to land on runway 25. During the flare, the pilot did not receive the gear warning horn and after touchdown the gear collapsed. The airplane went off the right side of the runway. The airplane to a stop and the pilot was able to egress normally. The airplane's firewall and right wing sustained substantial damage.

A review of maintenance records revealed that on December 4, 2008, various maintenance action were perform on both main landing gears. An examination of the maintenance performed by an aircraft mechanic determined that the left main landing gear retract rod was installed incorrectly. The airplane accumulated 72.7 hours before the retraction rod failed on the accident flight. The landing gear transmission/motor limit switch was damaged and rendered inoperative.

Contributing factors

  • cause Incorrect service/maintenance
  • factor Pilot
  • cause Installation

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 040/04kt, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.