Accident Overview
On August 29, 2023, about 1940 mountain daylight time, a Beech 95-B55, registration N2KM, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Greeley, Colorado. The pilot was not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight.
Pilot Account
The pilot reported that he had conducted a practice instrument approach to a landing on runway 35 and chose to remain in the traffic pattern for a second landing. While “engaging gear and first stage flaps,” he heard a radio call from another airplane that was in the vicinity of the traffic pattern. On final approach for the second landing, he was performing the pre-landing checklist (gas, undercarriage, mixture, props) when he was distracted “by what appeared to be another aircraft ahead of me…” After visually scanning the traffic pattern, he could not locate the object again.
During the landing, the pilot stated that he briefly heard the main landing gear wheels touch the runway surface followed by the sound of the airplane’s lower fuselage contacting the runway surface. The airplane slid on its fuselage and came to rest on the runway with the landing gear in the retracted position, which resulted in substantial damage to the lower fuselage.
Postaccident Examination
Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the exterior of the landing gear doors, along with the lower fuselage skin and underlying structure, had substantial abrasion damage. No damage to the landing gear structure or linkages was noted. During several landing gear retraction and extension tests, the landing gear operated normally. However, the cockpit landing gear warning system failed to sound an audible warning during the tests.
Maintenance History
A review of the airframe logbook showed that an annual inspection was performed on January 7, 2023. The inspection included a landing gear retraction and extension test with no issues noted in the inspection logbook entry.