- Date
- July 24, 2000, 13:00 local (19:00 UTC)
- Place
- Erie, CO
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N5549QMooney M20C
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report March 2, 2001
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 20000724011269A
- Case key
- 50017
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
Failure by the pilot to follow procedures and lower the landing gear.
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
At the completion of a cross-country flight, the flight was on final approach when the pilot was distracted by a truck, which was parked on one of the exit taxiways from the runway. Subsequently, the pilot failed to lower the landing gear and made a landing gear retracted landing.
Factual narrative
On July 24, 2000, at 1300 mountain daylight time, a Mooney M20C, N5549Q, sustained substantial damage during a wheels up landing at Tri-County Airport, Erie, Colorado. The private pilot and sole occupant was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for this local area cross country flight operating under Title 14 CFR Part 91 and no flight plan was filed. The flight departed Longmont, Colorado, at 1230.
According to the pilot, he was distracted by a truck, which was parked on one of the exit taxiways from the runway, and he forgot to lower the landing gear.
During the landing, the aircraft sustained damage to the belly skin, ribs, and stringers.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N5549Q
- Reported as
- Mooney M20C
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 2963
- Airframe hours
- 1,540
- Engine
- Lycoming IO360-A1D, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Curtis W. Simonsen
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · September 8, 1999 · 110 hours before
- Departed
- 2V2 · Longmont, CO
- Destination
- 48V
- Airport
- 48V · Tri-County, runway 33, 4,700 × 60 ft, concrete
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
- 54
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 812 total · 500 in this make and model · 65 in the last 90 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 280° at 15 knots, gusting 24
- Visibility
- 80 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 12,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 93 °F, dew point 48 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- BJC, 15 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.