BE-36 pilot reported landing gear malfunction inflight. Pilot lost control of aircraft on landing.

Date: 2024-12 · Aircraft: Bonanza 33 · Phase: landing

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-critical|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|ground-event-encounter-gear-up-landing|ground-event-encounter-ground-strike-aircraft|inflight-event-encounter-loss-of-aircraft-control

Synopsis

BE-36 pilot reported landing gear malfunction inflight. Pilot lost control of aircraft on landing.

Narrative

Took my Bonanza up for a flight for the first time in a few months to do one lap in the pattern and then a full stop landing. Upon landing; everything was indicating that my gear was down; besides my gear warning noise if throttle is below 12 inches of manifold pressure. Since both visual indicators said my gear was down; I suspected it was a false warning noise. As I touched down; by left main seemed to have collapsed in on itself; as I felt the left wing drop; and then proceeded to hear metal scraping against the runway. I quickly gave it full throttle to do a go around and access the situation. I quickly asked the Tower if they could see that my landing gear was fully down; in which they said yes. While remaining in the pattern; I again addressed the situation and now noticed that my landing gear lights; that only show 1 red; and 1 green; was now not showing anything. I then knew that it was in fact my left main landing gear that was not latched properly on full extension. I did a few more laps to try to best contain myself. My secondary indicator on the floor to show that the gear was down; was in fact down. I then took the manual crank out for the landing gear; did a half turn; but it didn't move much; and I figured that floor indicator says its down; so it can extend any further. I then decided that there wasn't much more I could do; so ATC decided that they were going to issue an emergency landing. I did one final lap to give the Emergency Crew time to get set up and ready. The Tower asked if I was going to shut down the engine; and in the heat of the moment; I asked for their advice; which in hindsight I shouldn't have done. I propped the door open prior to the accident; took my seat belt off; and cut the engine too high; lost airspeed and came down harder than expected and all three landing gear mechanisms were crushed/collapsed; with the left gear that had previously malfunctioned; collapsing more; as the left tip tank was scraped the most and was leaking fuel. I quickly ran out of the plane as I had about 50 gallons of fuel on board and didn't want to be engulfed in flames if it were to have exploded. Emergency Crew came out quickly and everyone was fantastic in helping out.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.