What happened
On August 9, 2022, a Piper PA-31T operated by Inversiones Luribay C.A. was conducting a training flight involving simulated engine failure maneuvers at Oscar Machado Zuloaga Airport (SVCS) in Charallave, Venezuela. The flight, which began at 19:10 UTC, had been in the air for approximately 50 minutes when the crew attempted a landing with reduced power on the left engine.
During the final approach, the student pilot configured the aircraft with full flaps but failed to verify that the landing gear was extended and locked. Consequently, the Piper PA-<0xC2>13T struck the runway on its belly, sliding across the pavement and onto the grass of the southern safety area. The crew members were uninjured, but the aircraft sustained substantial damage, including impacts to the lower fuselage, landing gear doors, engine cowlings, propellers, pitot tubes, and wing leading edges.
The investigation
The JIAAC investigation included a site inspection, photographic documentation, and interviews with the crew and air traffic controllers. Investigators also reviewed maintenance records from the responsible maintenance organization (GOLD JET CORPORATION C.A.), aircraft logs, and air traffic control voice recordings. Meteorological data from INAMEH indicated cloudy conditions with possible light rain in the area at the time of the event.
Findings
- The primary causal factor was a loss of situational awareness during a critical phase of flight, as the crew admitted to failing to deploy the landing gear.
- A significant contributing factor was an external threat involving bird activity (vultures) near the approach cone. The crew's focus on managing this environmental hazard diverted attention away from the cockpit procedures.
- This distraction led to an involuntary omission in the execution of the landing checklist, resulting in the aircraft landing with the gear retracted.