- Date
- August 4, 2004, 16:30 local (Aug 5, 2004, 00:30 UTC)
- Place
- Huslia, AK
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N300SNCessna 402C
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report December 3, 2004
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- FAA report
- 20040804017339A
- Case key
- 59827
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to extend the landing gear, which resulted in an inadvertent wheels up landing. A factor associated with the accident was the pilot's diverted attention.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The solo commercial air taxi pilot entered the airport area intending to land on one runway, but elected to change to the opposite end. The pilot reported that he was watching a departing airplane, and had placed his hand on the landing gear handle, but forgot to extend the landing gear, and landed gear-up. The airplane received structural damage to the lower fuselage.
Factual narrative
On August 4, 2004, about 1630 Alaska daylight time, a Cessna 402C airplane, N300SN, sustained substantial damage during an inadvertent gear-up landing at the Huslia Airport, Huslia, Alaska. The airplane was being operated by Arctic Circle Air Service of Fairbanks, Alaska, as a visual flight rules (VFR) cargo flight under Title 14, CFR Part 135 when the accident occurred. The solo commercial pilot was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and company flight following procedures were in effect. The flight originated at the Fairbanks International Airport, Fairbanks, about 1400.
During a telephone conversation with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC) on August 4, the director of operations for the operator said the pilot told him he entered the airport area intending to land on one runway, but then elected to change to the opposite end. The pilot told him that in the confusion he forgot to extend the landing gear. The director of operations said the airplane sustained damage to the bottom of the fuselage, flaps, engine nacelles, and propellers. He said prior to the accident there were no known mechanical anomalies with the airplane.
In a written statement dated August 4, the pilot reported that he entered the airport area intending to land on one runway, but elected to change to the oposite end. He wrote that he was watching a departing airplane, and had placed his hand on the landing gear handle, but forgot to extend the landing gear, and landed gear-up.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N300SN
- Reported as
- Cessna 402C
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 402C0060
- Engine
- Continental TSIO-520VB, 325 hp, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 135
- Operator
- Arctic Circle Air Service Inc, doing business as Arctic Circle Air
- Registered owner
- Arctic Air Group, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Utility; Standard, Normal
- Departed
- PAFA · Fairbanks, AK
- Destination
- PAHL · Huslia, AK
- Flight plan
- Company VFR
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 57
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1
- Flight hours
- 11,115 total · 4,750 in this make and model · 279 in the last 90 days · 176 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N300SN · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.