- Date
- January 7, 2024, 05:10 local (11:10 UTC)
- Place
- Fort Worth, TX
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N816ATPiper PA-44-180
- Defining event
- Landing: Landing gear not configured
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- Federal Aviation Administration
- FAA report
- 20240107001789A
- Case key
- 193629
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 and the flight instructor’s lack of recognition and inadequate remedial action, which resulted in a gear up landing.
Findings · 4
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The flight instructor reported that he and the private pilot receiving instruction had just completed their seventh landing of the morning. The private pilot reduced the throttle on downwind and the landing gear warning horn sounded so he increased the throttle and continued in the traffic pattern. The flight instructor prompted him to extend the flaps and the student stated that he would extend the landing gear. They “confirmed 3 green,” which would indicate that the landing gear was down and locked. During the landing flare, “no gear warning horn was alarming,” but as they got closer to the ground the instructor observed sparks out of the left window. The airplane slid on the runway, came to rest upright, and sustained substantial damage to the lower fuselage longerons. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector completed an extensive examination and functional testing of the landing gear system. With the airplane on jacks, he cycled the landing gear at least six times and determined the landing gear, warning annunciations and aural alerts operated per the procedures in the airplane’s maintenance manual and there were no anomalies found.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N816AT
- Reported as
- Piper PA-44-180
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 4496535
- Built
- 2022
- Airframe hours
- 692.7
- Engines
- Lycoming IO-360-B1G6, 180 horsepower, reciprocatingLycoming IO-360-B1G6, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- ATP Flight School
- Registered owner
- Seminole Aircraft LLC
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · January 8, 2023
- Departed
- GKY · Arlington, TX
- Destination
- Same as departure
- Airport
- AFW · Perot Fld/Fort Worth Alliance, runway 34R, 11,000 × 150 ft, concrete
- Equipment
- Auto-pilot, ADS-B, Stall warning system, Satellite tracking device, Onboard weather, Electronic flight bag or handheld device, Electronic primary flight display, Electronic multifunction display
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 · 2
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 19
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 1, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- December 26, 2023
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 142.8 total · 28 in this make and model · 61.8 as pilot in command · 63.2 in the last 90 days · 28 in the last 30 days · 7.6 in the last 24 hours
- Role
- Flight instructor
- Age
- 31
- Injuries
- None
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine sea
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- June 7, 2022
- Seat
- Right
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 108.1 total · 121.7 in this make and model · 1,023.5 as pilot in command · 185.8 in the last 90 days · 51.8 in the last 30 days · 7.9 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night
- Wind
- 170° at 3 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 36 °F, dew point 32 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.08 inHg
- Observed at
- KAFW
- METAR
- KAFW 071053Z 17003KT 10SM CLR 02/00 A3008 RMK AO2 SLP192 T00220000
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on February 22, 2024, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 16.2 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.