- Date
- September 6, 2025, 12:52 local (16:52 UTC)
- Place
- Bell, FL
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N2469JLafferty Jack SEA REY
- Defining event
- Landing: Landing gear not configured
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report December 4, 2025
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20250906021589A
- Case key
- 200971
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 raise the landing gear before landing on the water.
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
The pilot of the amphibious airplane stated that he departed from a turf runway at his home airport but forgot to raise the landing gear. He planned a short flight to a nearby river where he would make a water landing, before returning to his home airport. While landing in the river, the extended landing gear contacted the water and the airplane nosed over, resulting in substantial damage to the forward portion of the fuselage. The pilot stated that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N2469J
- Reported as
- Lafferty Jack SEA REY
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- 1MK342C
- Built
- 2005
- Airframe hours
- 1,040
- Engine
- Rotax 912ULS, 100 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Annual · March 11, 2025
- Departed
- 37FL · Bell, FL
- Destination
- Bell, FL
- Equipment
- 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
- 71
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Single-engine sea
- Medical
- Sport pilot
- Last flight review
- September 19, 2023
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- Lap only
- Flight hours
- 1,147 total · 800 in this make and model · 1,147 as pilot in command · 12 in the last 90 days · 4 in the last 30 days · 0 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 90° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Temperature
- 91 °F, dew point 75 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.98 inHg
- Observed at
- CTY, 14 nm away
- METAR
- KCTY 061715Z AUTO 09004KT 10SM FEW055 FEW070 33/24 A2998 RMK AO2
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on December 4, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 32.4 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.