23 Sep 2023: PIPER PA-28RT-201

23 Sep 2023: PIPER PA-28RT-201 (N2242N) — Unknown operator

No fatalities • Chesterfield, MO, United States

Probable cause

The partial retraction of the right main and nose landing gear during landing rollout for undetermined reasons.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On September 23, 2023, about 1045 central daylight time, a Piper PA-28RT-201 airplane, N2242N, sustained substantial damage when it was involved in an accident near Chesterfield, Missouri. The pilot and three passengers were not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. According to the pilot, he conducted an uneventful local flight just before the accident flight. During the accident flight, while conducting a visual traffic pattern approach to the runway, the pilot verified three green landing gear extended annunciator lights and proceeded to land the airplane. After a normal touchdown, he felt that the right wing was low and began to correct the attitude when the right wing continued to drop and scrape the runway. The airplane pulled to the right, exited the runway, spun slowly to the right, and came to rest upright. The left main landing gear remained extended; however, the right main and nose landing gear were partially retracted. The outboard right wing sustained substantial damage. After the airplane was recovered it was placed on jacks to facilitate testing of the landing gear system. Three electric landing gear extension and retraction tests and the manual emergency landing gear extension procedure were completed with no anomalies noted. The airplane’s landing gear are hydraulically operated by an electrically powered reversible pump. The airplane was equipped with a Garmin G3X flight display that recorded several aircraft parameters, including electrical amperage (amps). The accident flight data was extracted by a mechanic and sent to the National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge. A review of the data showed a sharp increase or spike in amps during the accident flight phases that were consistent with the landing gear retraction and extension. Another sharp increase in amps was noted after touchdown and during the landing roll at about 60 knots groundspeed. The reason for the sharp increase in amps during the landing roll could not be determined.

Contributing factors

  • Attain/maintain not possible
  • Main landing gear

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 190/08kt, 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.