What happened
On October 6, 2016, at approximately 11:06 a.m., a Beechcraft BE-99, registration HI-950, departed from Aeropuerto Internacional Dr. José Francisco Peña Gómez in the Dominican Republic. The aircraft was operating a commercial flight with 13 people on board, including a crew of two and 10 passengers. Shortly after takeoff, the crew discovered that the landing gear could not be retracted.
Following the malfunction, the crew declared an emergency and remained airborne for over three hours to allow for the consumption of fuel. The aircraft eventually returned to the airport and performed an emergency landing at 2:17 p.m. The landing gear was in a partially extended position, stuck midway through its cycle. All 13 occupants survived the event without physical injury, though two passengers required medical attention for anxiety. The aircraft sustained minor damage.
The investigation
The CIAA investigation focused on the mechanical failure of the landing gear system and the pre-flight inspection processes. Investigators examined the nose gear bay and discovered a piece of uncertified iron angle metal positioned parallel to the shock absorber.
Technical analysis revealed that when the pilot attempted to retract the gear, this foreign object obstructed the normal movement of the nose gear. This obstruction caused the system to lock in a mid-cycle position and triggered a circuit breaker. Because this specific breaker is located in an area inaccessible to the crew during flight, the electrical system for the landing gear remained deactivated, preventing the crew from extending the gear fully for a standard landing.
Findings
- The primary cause of the incident was the presence of an uncertified metal object in the nose gear bay, which physically blocked the retraction mechanism.
- The aircraft was placed into service without an adequate pre-flight inspection by maintenance technicians.
- The flight crew failed to perform a sufficiently thorough pre-flight check that would have identified the foreign object in the gear bay.
- The mechanical failure led to a tripped circuit breaker that could not be reset by the pilots in flight, rendering the landing gear system inoperable.