Incident
On a circuit training flight from Arusha Airport (ARK), an aircraft bearing registration 5H-PAB experienced a belly landing after the crew omitted to extend the landing gear during a flapless approach. The aircraft departed at 12:35 hours for a local training sortie with one instructor, one pilot trainee, and three passengers on board, operating under visual flight rules.
Flight Details
The instructor planned to execute nine touch-and-go circuits, with three each at 42°, 18°, and 0° flaps. The first six circuits were completed without event. For the first flapless landing, the instructor directed the trainee to extend the approach and establish a six-mile final for runway 09. During the final, the instructor noted the aircraft was slightly low and instructed the trainee to adjust. As the trainee called for full propeller forward (coarse pitch), the instructor warned about flaring carefully to avoid tail skid contact.
During the flare, the tail skid struck and scraped the runway, followed by the belly and nose underside. The aircraft slid for 164 meters before coming to rest on the runway with engines running. The instructor performed emergency shutdown and evacuated. None of the occupants were injured, and no fire occurred.
Crew Testimony
The instructor stated he had forgotten to lower the landing gear due to preoccupation with the rate of descent and executing the flapless flare. The pilot under instruction reported concentrating heavily on the technical aspects of flying, to the point of forgetting to call for gear extension. Only one checklist was in use—a book held by the instructor—and it had been used for the first six landings but not for the accident approach. Neither pilot recalled hearing the landing gear warning horn.
Probable Cause
The official finding cites the probable cause as failure of the crew to follow the approach checklist and to lower the landing gear.