- Date
- July 10, 2018, 14:00 local (19:00 UTC)
- Place
- Houston, TX
- Injuries
- 3 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N7716CPiper PA28R
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Landing gear not configured
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report September 26, 2019
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- General Aviation Accidents
- Parties
- FAA
- FAA report
- 20180710010799I
- Case key
- 97751
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 receiving instruction's failure to extend the landing gear and the flight instructor's failure to ensure that the landing gear were extended during landing. Contributing to the accident was the pilot receiving instruction's and instructor's failure to conduct a prelanding checklist.
Findings · 5
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 private pilot reported that he was receiving commercial instruction in an airplane with retractable landing gear during a cross-country flight. He added that, while he turned the airplane from the downwind leg to the base leg of the traffic pattern for the runway, he did not perform the checklist, and the flight instructor did not verity that the landing gear were extended. The airplane touched down on the runway with the landing gear retracted. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the external longerons on the lower fuselage. The pilot receiving instruction reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Factual narrative
The private pilot reported that he was receiving commercial instruction in an airplane with retractable landing gear during a cross country flight to an unfamiliar airport. He added that while he turned the airplane from the downwind leg to the base leg of the traffic pattern for the runway, he did not perform the checklist, and the flight instructor did not verity that the landing gear were extended. The airplane touched down on the runway with the landing gear retracted. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the external longerons on the lower fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot did not submit the National Transportation Safety Board Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident/Incident Report Form 6120.1.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N7716C
- Reported as
- Piper PA28R (200)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 28R-7635114
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-360 SER, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Ascent Aviation LLC
- Registered owner
- Ascent Aviation LLC
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- T41 · La Porte, TX
- Destination
- T41 · La Porte, TX
- Flight plan
- Unknown
- Airport
- DWH · David Wayne Hooks Memorial, runway 17R, 7,009 × 100 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- Unknown
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
- 58
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, With waivers/limitations
- Flight hours
- 400 total · 100 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Temperature
- 90 °F, dew point 72 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.12 inHg
- Observed at
- KDWH
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on May 9, 2019, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 310 KB 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.