29 May 2018: CESSNA P210N

29 May 2018: CESSNA P210N (N7546K) — Unknown operator

No fatalities • Lewiston, ID, United States

Probable cause

The failure of a hydraulic line in the landing gear system, which resulted in the pilot's inability to lower the gear and a subsequent gear-up landing.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On May 29, 2018 about 0900 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna P210, N7546K, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Lewiston, Idaho. The private pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. The pilot reported that, following departure, he climbed to his planned enroute altitude of 7,500 ft mean sea level. He noticed that the airspeed was lower than expected and then saw that the landing gear position indicator light showed that the gear was not retracted. The pilot cycled the gear but was unable to fully extend or retract them. He then attempted to manually lower the landing gear with the emergency hand pump but was unsuccessful. He declared an emergency and subsequently landed with the gear retracted, resulting in substantial damage to the horizontal stabilizer spar. Examination revealed that the rigid hydraulic line connecting the powerpack to the bulkhead had failed at the ferrule. A review of the airplane's maintenance records revealed that, on March 13, 2018, at a tachometer time of 384 hours, a maintenance facility completed a check of the landing gear. A subsequent entry, dated May 17, 2018, and about 8.6 flight hours after the previous maintenance, stated, "Landing gear inop for up/dn. Pilot report did pump gear down." The entry indicated that personnel performed troubleshooting on the source of a hydraulic fluid leak, which they determined to be at the hydraulic power pack gear system. The entry stated that the tube fitting line cracked at the flare below the ferrule, and a new line of aluminum tubing the same size and length as the failed tubing was fabricated and installed.

Contributing factors

  • cause Main landing gear — Failure
  • cause Gear extension and retract sys — Failure

Conditions

Weather
VMC, 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.