Mooney M20K N5254G

Summary

On 22 December 2017 at about 00:00 local time, a Mooney M20K registered N5254G was involved in an accident near Venice, Florida, 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

22 December 2017 at 00:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Venice, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

Venice Muni (VNC)

Coordinates

27.0739, -82.4372

Aircraft

Mooney M20K

Registration

N5254G

Category

Airplane

Year built

1988

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Darlington → Venice

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

ERA18LA058

Nobody was injured.

A failure of the normal landing gear extension system for reasons that could not be determined due to damage to the system and the pilot's failure to ensure that the landing gear was down and locked before touchdown. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s distraction due to weather and traffic.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The private pilot approached the destination airport at the conclusion of the visual flight rules flight while receiving traffic advisory services from an air traffic controller. The pilot could not recall at what point during the approach he extended the landing gear but postulated that he may have done so about 10 miles from the airport. As the pilot was "dodging clouds" during the approach, he heard another pilot, who was also heading to the same airport, request a "pop-up" instrument flight rules clearance from the controller due to sea fog in the area. The controller then advised the accident pilot to follow the other airplane to the airport. During the approach to the runway, the accident pilot reduced the throttle to avoid overtaking the other airplane, and the landing gear warning horn activated. He then applied a small amount of throttle, and the horn stopped. The subsequent landing was normal until the landing flare, when the pilot heard a scraping noise. The airplane slid along the runway on its belly for 400 ft before coming to a stop. Postaccident examination of the landing gear revealed that the landing gear circuit breaker was open and that the landing gear position selector was in the down position. The main landing gear had extended minimally out of their respective wells, suggesting that the landing gear extension cycle had at least started but was not successfully completed. During recovery from the runway, the airplane was placed on jacks, and the landing gear was lowered using the emergency gear extension without incident. Damage to the landing gear extension system precluded further functional testing. Based on the available information, it is possible that at some point during the flight, the pilot moved the landing gear selector handle to the down position, but the landing gear did not extend. When the pilot heard the landing gear warning horn activate as he reduced throttle, he should have realized that the landing gear was not in a safe position for landing. It is likely that his fixation on the weather conditions and the other airplane landing at the airport distracted him from completing this task. Had the pilot diverted to another nearby airport where the weather was better, he could have performed additional troubleshooting and likely could have performed a successful emergency extension of the landing gear without the distraction of the weather and other traffic.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.