- Date
- August 13, 2000, 13:30 local (19:30 UTC)
- Place
- Watkins, CO
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N6981TCessna 310D
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report March 2, 2001
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 20000813015489A
- Case key
- 50014
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
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Probable cause
The NTSB’s determination of the probable cause, and any contributing factors.
The pilot's failure to follow procedures and lower the landing gear prior to landing. Factors were diverted attention and aural perception.
Analysis
At the completion of a cross-country flight, the pilot was given an abnormal descent by Air Traffic Control and during approach was distracted by another aircraft waiting to depart and he forgot to lower the landing gear. He said he heard an oral warning device just prior to touch down and thought it was the stall warning.
Factual narrative
On August 13, 2000, at 1330 mountain daylight time, a Cessna 310D, N6981T, sustained substantial damage during a landing gear retracted landing at Front Range Airport, Watkins, Colorado. The private pilot and sole occupant was not injured. The flight was operating under Title 14 CFR Part 91 and no flight plan was filed. Visual meteorological conditions for this cross-country flight that originated in Granby, Colorado, approximately 2 hours prior to the accident.
According to the pilot, he was distracted by an abnormal descent given by Air Traffic Control, and another aircraft waiting for takeoff and he forgot to lower the landing gear. He said he heard an oral warning device just prior to touch down and thought it was the stall warning.
According to a repair station that assessed the damage, the belly skins and some ribs and stringers sustained damage.
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.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N6981T
- Reported as
- Cessna 310D
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 39281
- Airframe hours
- 4,289
- Engine
- Continental IO470D, 260 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Joseph Brannon
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · November 12, 1999 · 100 hours before
- Departed
- GNB · Grandby, CO
- Destination
- FTG
- Airport
- FTG · Denver-Front Range, runway 26, 8,000 × 100 ft, asphalt
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
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 3,000 total · 850 in this make and model · 10 in the last 90 days · 2 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 70° at 8 knots, gusting 16
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 88 °F, dew point 46 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- FTG, 1 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.