Incident Overview
On 5 February 2001 at 1247 UTC, a Beech 76 aircraft (registration G-BGHP) was conducting a training flight at Exeter Airport. The aircraft was manufactured in 1979 and powered by two Lycoming O-360-A1G6D piston engines. The crew consisted of a commander (instructor) and a student pilot; there were no passengers. The commander held an Airline Transport Pilot's Licence with an Instructor Rating and had approximately 20,000 flying hours, with 95 hours on type. No injuries were reported.
Flight Sequence
The student pilot was handling the aircraft from the left seat. The instructor briefed that, during a touch-and-go landing, he would raise the flaps after touchdown and then call for the student to advance the throttles to take-off power. On the first circuit, the student made a reasonable landing. The instructor raised the flaps and called for take-off power. However, instead of advancing the throttles, the student selected the landing gear lever to the 'up' position. The nose gear retracted, and the aircraft came to rest on the runway. After the aircraft stopped, the instructor reselected the gear lever to 'down'.
Cockpit Configuration
The gear lever is located to the left of the throttle quadrant, and the flap lever is positioned to the right. The student was an experienced single-engine instructor but was on her first operating flight in a multi-engine aircraft and had no previous experience with retractable landing gear.
Possible Factors
According to the pilot's report and AAIB enquiries, the inadvertent gear selection may have resulted from a combination of the student's awareness to raise the gear after take-off and the normal action of raising flaps during the ground roll of a touch-and-go.
Similar Incident
This event is similar to another accident involving a Beech 76 (registration G-OADY) at Leeds Bradford Airport on 29 January 2001, also reported in the same AAIB Bulletin.
Damage
The propellers and underside of the forward fuselage were damaged, and the engines were shock loaded.