Incident Overview
On August 21, 2019, at approximately 1235 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 310L, registration N2299F, was substantially damaged during a gear-up landing near Tampa, Florida. The commercial pilot, who was the sole occupant, was not injured. The flight was conducted under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight.
Sequence of Events
The pilot reported that during the landing approach, the right main landing gear did not indicate a down-and-locked position. He attempted to resolve the indication by wiggling the gear indicator light and replacing the bulb, but the right main gear still did not show a locked condition. He proceeded with the landing, but during the landing roll, the right main landing gear began to collapse. The pilot aborted the landing and climbed to altitude. At altitude, he cycled the landing gear and attempted to extend the right main gear using the emergency gear extension procedure multiple times. He also performed abrupt maneuvers but was unable to get the right main gear to lock down.
He attempted a second landing with the same result—the gear began to collapse. After aborting the second landing, the pilot contacted air traffic control, declared an emergency, and diverted to a tower-controlled airport. He performed one low pass and one fly-by of the control tower; tower personnel reported that the right main landing gear appeared to be down. He returned for landing and again felt the right main gear collapsing, so he aborted and informed the tower that he would land gear-up. He subsequently executed a gear-up landing.
Post-Accident Examination
After the aircraft came to rest, airport maintenance personnel attempted to lock the right main landing gear using the emergency extension system but were unsuccessful. However, they were able to manually push the gear over-center and brace it. The nose and left main landing gear were secured over-center with heavy tie wraps, and the airplane was towed to the ramp.
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airworthiness inspector examined the aircraft following recovery. The inspector reported that he could not determine the reason the right main landing gear would not lock in the down position. No disassembly was performed to access all components of the right main landing gear retraction and extension system.
Damage Assessment
The pilot/operator reported that the aircraft sustained substantial damage as a result of the gear-up landing.