21 Jun 2012: Cessna R182 — Marine Military Academy (Air Wing), Inc.

21 Jun 2012: Cessna R182 (N4720R) — Marine Military Academy (Air Wing), Inc.

No fatalities • Santa Teresa, NM, United States

Probable cause

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

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On June 21, 2012, at 1530 mountain daylight time, a Cessna model R182 airplane, N4720R, was substantially damaged when the main landing gear collapsed while landing at Dona Ana County Airport (5T6), Santa Teresa, New Mexico. The private pilot was not injured. The airplane was registered to and operated by Marine Military Academy (Air Wing) Incorporated, under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Day visual meteorological conditions prevailed for personal flight, which was operated without a flight plan. The flight departed Skypark Airport (KBTF), Bountiful, Utah, about 1130 with 5T6 as the intended destination.

The pilot reported that as the flight approached 5T6 he listened to the airport's weather broadcast, which indicated the local wind was from the east at 19 knots, gusting 23 knots. He entered the traffic pattern on a left downwind for runway 10 (9,549 feet by 100 feet, asphalt) and before turning onto base he lowered the landing gear and selected flaps 10-degrees. He reported that the green landing gear position light illuminated after the landing gear had extended. While on base he selected flaps 20-degrees and through his cockpit window visually confirmed that the left main landing gear was extended. Shortly after touchdown, during the landing roll, the left main landing gear began to retract, which was followed by the right main landing gear. The airplane then veered off the left side of the runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and right horizontal stabilizer during the accident. The left wingtip also exhibited some scraping from contact with 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 then repositioned into a hangar for additional testing.

The airplane was placed onto jack stands in order to perform several cycles of the landing gear extension/retraction system. No anomalies were observed as the landing gear was cycled four times using the airplane's electro-hydraulic system. During landing gear extension, the nose landing gear would extend first, followed by the main landing gear. The related gear down lock assemblies engaged properly when the landing gear was fully extended. There were no observed hydraulic fluid leaks. In addition to the four normal landing gear cycles, the landing gear extended from the fully retracted position into the down-and-locked position via the emergency landing gear extension 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 amber position light illuminated while the landing gear was in the fully retracted position. The postaccident examination did not reveal any mechanical anomalies or failures that would have resulted in the main landing gear collapse.

At 1455, the airport's automatic weather observing station reported the following weather conditions: wind from 080 magnetic at 12 knots gusting to 17 knots, visibility 40 statute miles, temperature 38 degrees Celsius, dew point 9 degrees Celsius, altimeter 30.01 inches of mercury. No cloud data or weather type was provided.

Contributing factors

  • cause Not used/operated
  • cause Pilot
  • cause Pilot

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 080/12kt, vis 40sm

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.