What happened
On the afternoon of 18 September 2021, a Cessna 1s77 RG, registration ZS-LLS, departed from Vereeniging Aerodrome (FAVV) in Gauteng for a local flight. The flight plan involved navigating to the Heidelberg VHF omni range before returning to the departure airfield.
During the initial takeoff roll, the pilot inadvertently shifted the landing gear lever from the down and locked position to an intermediate position. As the aircraft accelerated and the nose began to lift, the deactivation of the squat switch triggered the gear pump, alerting the pilot to the incorrect lever position. Although the pilot attempted to return the lever to the down and locked position, the nose landing gear had already begun to retract. The nose section subsequently struck the runway, causing the propeller to impact the surface. The aircraft slid approximately 10 metres on its exhaust and nose gear before coming to a halt near the threshold of Runway 03. There were 0 fatalities and no injuries were reported.
The investigation
SACAA AIID examined the mechanical state of the aircraft and the operational procedures following the event. The investigation confirmed that the aircraft had undergone a maintenance inspection approximately five months prior to the accident, with only 15.43 airframe hours accumulated since that check. No mechanical defects were recorded prior to the incident, and all identified damage—including impacts to the propeller, nose gear, and exhaust—was directly attributed to the runway strike.
Findings
- The primary cause of the undercarriage collapse was the accidental movement of the gear lever to a partially retracted position during the takeoff roll.
- According to the aircraft's operating manual, the gear lever requires the pilot to pull the handle outward to clear a detent before it can be moved between positions.
- The pilot only became aware of the gear's status once the aircraft had gained sufficient speed to trigger the hydraulic pump via the squat switch.