LAX02LA047

The airplane made a gear-up landing during a positioning flight following landing gear maintenance. The airplane had been flown to a maintenance facility for landing gear retraction problems. The landing gear system had been worked on, and the landing gear warning system had been checked. The pilot flew the airplane back to its base and conducted several prelanding checks while on the 5-mile final approach. He retarded the throttle for landing and noticed the airplane sink. The airplane impacted the ground with the landing gear retracted and skidded to a stop. The airplane then erupted into flames, burning the cockpit and cabin. The pilot did not remember whether or not he extended the landing gear, but he did recall not hearing any warning horns when he retarded the throttles. The landing gear system could not be checked due to the post accident fire damage.

On December 13, 2001, at 1745 mountain standard time, a Beech 95, N1016T, was destroyed by fire following a gear-up landing at Kingman, Arizona. Neither the commercial pilot nor the pilot rated passenger were injured. The airplane was being operated by Sheble Aviation & Flight School, Inc., under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91, as a positioning flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and a flight plan had not been filed for the cross-country flight that originated from Needles, California, at 1715.

The airplane had been flown to the Sheble maintenance provider, located in Needles, earlier in the day for a "slow to retract" landing gear problem. According to the maintenance technician, he replaced the retract motor and swung the landing gear several times to check the system, including the landing gear warning horns. A Sheble pilot and a prospective student pilot passenger picked up the airplane.

According to the pilot's written statement, he conducted a prelanding check and entered a 5-mile final for runway 03. He stated that he performed a "couple more" landing checks and told the student/passenger about the airspeeds to expect during the different phases of the landing. As the airplane crossed the runway threshold, the pilot pulled the power levers to idle and transitioned to the flare. The pilot noticed that the airplane started to "sink," and he couldn't believe that he had flared that high. He started to inform the passenger that it was going to be a hard landing when the airplane "slammed" down onto the runway.

The airplane skidded to a stop, and the pilot noticed flames down by his left leg. He started to tell the passenger to get out of the airplane only to hear the passenger state the same thing. As the pilot and passenger walked away from the airplane, the airplane became engulfed in flames.

The pilot stated that he could not remember whether he put the landing gear down or not, but he did mention not noticing any landing gear warning horns during the landing.

Post accident photographs of the airplane revealed that the entire cockpit and cabin area had been consumed by fire. Due to the fire damage the landing gear and warning systems could not be tested.