Piper PA44 N2204X

Summary

On 2 September 2018 at about 19:20 local time, a Piper PA44 registered N2204X, operated by Airgo Inc, was involved in an accident near Centralia, Illinois, United States. 2 people were 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

2 September 2018 at 19:20

Classification

Accident

Location

Centralia, Illinois, United States

Nearest airport

Centralia Muni (ENL)

Coordinates

38.5150, -89.0911

Aircraft

Piper PA44

Registration

N2204X

Category

Airplane

Year built

1979

Engines

2

Operator

Airgo Inc

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Centralia → Centralia

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

GAA18CA531

Nobody was injured.

The pilot receiving instruction's failure to extend the landing gear and the flight instructor's failure to verify that the landing gear was extended before landing. Contributing to the accident was the flight instructor’s delayed remedial action and distraction.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight instructor in the twin-engine airplane reported that, during the second simulated single-engine failure approach, the pilot under instruction reduced the left engine power setting to 12 inches of manifold pressure, which activated the landing gear auditory warning horn. On downwind, the student performed the prelanding checks and asked the instructor if he should deploy the landing gear. The instructor told the student to delay the action and deploy the landing gear during the final landing checks because the student was struggling to maintain altitude. Shortly after turning to final, the student performed the final landing checks and provided verbal cues of completion but did not include the landing gear check. The instructor stated that he was distracted and focused on corrections because the student was struggling to maintain altitude and the runway centerline during the final approach. The instructor did not verify that the gear was extended. During the landing flare, the instructor realized that the landing gear was not extended, and he immediately took the controls. He leveled the airplane and landed on the runway with the gear retracted. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the engines. The instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.