Instructor and student pilot aboard a BE95 suffered what may have been a pilot induced gear collapse following a crosswind landing.
Synopsis
Instructor and student pilot aboard a BE95 suffered what may have been a pilot induced gear collapse following a crosswind landing.
Narrative
On short final the gear indication was double checked green down and locked. We were attempting a normal landing to a full stop. A crosswind from the left was present. My student was correcting for the crosswind and landed on the centerline without any side load. My student was concerned with how the plane felt after touchdown and wanted to bring the flaps up for better stability on the landing roll due to the crosswind. My student instinctively reached for the flaps and put his hand on the gear. In our model BE-95; the flap and gear selectors are backwards from conventional. Once my student's hand reached for the gear I moved my hand to guard the gear selector and before I could react fast enough the nose dipped and the props struck the ground followed by the nose. The right main then collapsed as we came to a stop. The squat switch located on the left main gear did not seem to do its job. I am usually very vigilant when it comes to ground operations in complex aircraft. I had briefed my student many times on the importance of not touching anything during the landing roll until clear of the runway. The one instant that my attention was not focused directly on the gear selector was when I paid the price for it. In the future I will leave my hand on the gear selector at all times during ground operations and continue to brief students on the importance of not touching any systems until a complete stop has been performed. I believe that the simple act of guarding the gear with my hand continuously during ground operations will prevent a problem like this from happening again.
Second reporter narrative
I corrected for the crosswind and crab on final and in ground effect all three wheels touched down simultaneously. I immediately thought something was odd as the airplane didn't seem to handle well on the landing rollout. I reached to verify the gear down with the switch as I couldn't look down to verify the light. I made mention that I was going to pull up the flaps to see if that would alleviate the awkward feeling/movement of the aircraft. I feel that the aircraft; a 1959 Travel Air; might not have been in the best flying condition. It's possible that something might have gone wrong with the gear. I also think it's possible when I went to check the gear selector switch that it might have popped out of the down lock position. If that were the case then the squat switch didn't function nor did the warning horn.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.