Event Summary
On 25 August 2010, a cargo aircraft An-26B, registration SP-FDP, departed from Tallinn-Lennart Meri-Ülemiste Airport for Helsinki. Following uneventful preparations, the aircraft initiated its takeoff roll on runway 08 at 16:47:22. The calculated V1 was 182 km/h and Vr was 201 km/h. Ten seconds after the start of the roll, the pilot flying began rotation without a Vr callout at an indicated speed of 123 km/h. The aircraft pitch angle increased to 4.6° two seconds later.
At 16:47:38, the navigator made a V1 callout at 160.5 km/h. One second later, the flight engineer called out "Retracting" in Polish. The aircraft then pitched down, and three seconds after the call, it contacted the runway. It continued on its belly for 1,228 meters before coming to rest three meters to the right of the runway centerline. No persons were injured and no fire occurred. The occurrence was classified as an accident due to substantial damage to the aircraft's structure.
Investigation Findings
The official investigation determined the probable cause to be the inadequate action of the flight engineer, specifically an early and uncommanded landing gear retraction. Several contributing factors were identified:
1. Inadequate crew resource management and insufficient experience in cooperation and coordination between crew members. 2. The start of rotation at low speed with fast elevator movement to 17°, which lifted the aircraft enough to close the weight-on-wheels (WOW) switch but at a speed insufficient for climb. This also provided misleading information to the flight engineer about the aerodynamic status. 3. Inadequate adjustment of the WOW switch, which allowed gear retraction to be activated before the aircraft was airborne.
The investigation noted that the position of the landing gear selector on the central console was not a contributing factor but raised it as a safety concern, particularly for crews trained on aircraft with gear lever locations compliant with EASA CS-25. Relocating the lever per CS-25 could provide an additional safety barrier in similar scenarios.
Probable Cause and Contributing Factors
Probable Cause: The inadequate action of the flight engineer, consisting in early and uncommanded landing gear retraction.
Contributing Factors: Inadequate crew resource management and coordination; premature rotation at low speed with rapid elevator input; and improper WOW switch adjustment allowing gear retraction before airborne.