Piper PA-24-260 N9212P

Summary

On 14 February 2006 at about 03:01 local time, a Piper PA-24-260 registered N9212P was involved in an accident near Rancho Murieta, California, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

14 February 2006 at 03:01

Classification

Accident

Location

Rancho Murieta, California, United States

Nearest airport

Rancho Murieta (RIU)

Coordinates

38.4892, -121.1047

Aircraft

Piper PA-24-260

Registration

N9212P

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Delta → Rancho Murieta

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Dusk

NTSB number

LAX06LA114

Nobody was injured.

an electrical fault in the nose gear limit switch circuit, which lead to an intermittent failure of the landing gear extension system. Also causal was the pilot's failure to fully complete the emergency gear extension procedure. A factor in the accident was the inoperative runway edge lights.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane landed short of the approach end of the runway following a landing gear extension malfunction and the nose and main landing gear were sheared off. The pilot departed on a cross-country flight and he was unable to retract the airplane's landing gear, and diverted to another airport to have a mechanic inspect the landing gear. The mechanic placed the airplane on jacks, inspected, and functionally checked the landing gear. No mechanical anomalies were noted, and the mechanic returned the airplane to service. The pilot refueled the airplane to its capacity of 5.5 hours of flight time, and continued the flight to his destination airport. Approximately 4 hours later he arrived at the destination airport and noted it was still light outside. He placed the landing gear handle in the down position, but did not receive a down and locked indication inside the cockpit. He then tried unsuccessfully to manually lower the landing gear several times, but it did not fully extend. The pilot flew around the airport for an additional 1.5 hours trying to extend the landing gear. At that point, he realized the airplane was in a low fuel state and it was dark outside. He did not feel that he could safely make it a nearby airport and decided to make a precautionary landing. Neither the pilot nor fire department personnel waiting on the ground could get the airport runway lights turned on. The airplane landed short of the runway. The Safety Board investigator-in-charge, and a Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness inspector examined the landing gear system. With the use of an ohmmeter and the airplane's wiring diagram, they were able to determine that the nose landing gear limit switch had an intermittent fault in the normally closed circuit position. According to the airplane's manufacturer, an intermittent fault in the nose landing gear limit switch would cause the landing gear motor to fail to complete either the landing gear UP or DOWN cycle.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.