11 Sep 2015: BEECH 58 — Midwest Air Link

11 Sep 2015: BEECH 58 (N4199S) — Midwest Air Link

No fatalities • Gary, IN, United States

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to ensure that the landing gear was down while on short final, his subsequent failure to conduct a go-around, and his loss of situational awareness of the airplane’s altitude above the runway while landing.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On September 10, 2015, about 2035 central daylight time, a Beech 58 twin-engine airplane, N4199S, sustained substantial damage while landing at Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY), Gary, Indiana. The pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. The airplane was registered to Charity Homes, Inc., and operated by Midwest Air Link under the provisions of the 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 135 as a non-scheduled domestic cargo positioning flight. Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident, and the flight operated on an activated instrument flight rules flight plan. The flight departed the Columbus Municipal Airport (BAK), Columbus, Indiana, about 2030 eastern daylight time en route to GYY.

The pilot reported that he was flying the runway ILS 30 approach to GYY when he lowered the approach flaps about 5.5 miles from the airport and lowered the landing gear 5 miles from the airport. He reported that as he was turning off the positioning lights, so that the landing gear indicator lights would brighten, the propellers struck the runway and the airplane skidded on its belly on the runway. The pilot closed the throttles and mixture, and turned off the master switch.

The air traffic controller who was in the GYY control tower reported seeing the nose landing light before the airplane touched down.

The examination of the airplane revealed that the airplane's wing spar sustained substantial damage. The belly panels, flaps, and nose landing gear doors sustained scraping damage consistent with contact with the runway. The damage to the nose landing gear doors was consistent with the nose landing gear in the retracted position. There was no damage to the inner or outer landing gear doors.

A Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness inspector provided oversight when the landing gear system was examined. The airplane was put on jacks and the system was checked by lowering and raising the landing gear handle in the cockpit. The main and nose landing gear lowered and raised normally, and the landing gear light indicators operated normally as well.

At 2045, the surface weather observation at GYY was: wind 290 degrees at 5 kts, 20 miles visibility, sky clear, temperature 17 degrees C, dew point 14 degrees C, altimeter 29.92 inches of mercury.

The landing checklist is accomplished after the landing gear is lowered and the airplane is in the landing configuration. While on short final and in the flare, if there are doubts about the landing gear configuration, a go-around should be accomplished.

Contributing factors

  • cause Incorrect use/operation
  • cause Pilot
  • cause Pilot
  • Pilot

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 290/05kt, vis 20sm

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.