- Date
- May 22, 2025, 12:41 local (17:41 UTC)
- Place
- Arlington, TX
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N3239QCessna 401
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Landing gear not configured
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- FAA- North Texas FSDO
- FAA report
- 20250522006249A
- Case key
- 200214
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 failure of the left landing gear system and subsequent intentional gear up landing.
Findings · 2
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
According to the pilot, the airplane had undergone extensive maintenance and an annual inspection before being flown for the first time in about 25 years. During the third traffic pattern, the “left landing gear broke and necessitated a gear up landing.” The pilot landed the airplane with the landing gear retracted which resulted in substantial damage to the lower fuselage. According to the pilot, the left landing gear strut over extended and jammed itself into the wheel well. Additionally, he reported that the left main landing gear bell crank was fractured which appeared to have possibly been damaged during a previous gear-up landing in 1998.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N3239Q
- Reported as
- Cessna 401
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 401-0039
- Built
- 1967
- Airframe hours
- 5,193.4
- Engines
- Continental TSIO-520, 300 horsepower, reciprocatingContinental TSIO-520, 300 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Flight test · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Russell William G
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · May 20, 2025
- Destination
- Same as departure
- Airport
- GKY · Arlington Muni, runway 16/34, 6,080 × 100 ft, concrete
- Equipment
- Stall warning system, ADS-B
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
- 62
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- May 1, 2024
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 5,000 total · 1 in this make and model · 3,000 as pilot in command · 75 in the last 90 days · 52 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 110° at 9 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 88 °F, dew point 72 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.97 inHg
- Observed at
- KGKY
- METAR
- KGKY 221753Z 11009KT 10SM CLR 31/22 A2997 RMK AO2 SLP140 T03060222 10306 20217 58012,M
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on September 5, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 2.4 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.
Other investigations on N3239Q · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.