- Date
- March 6, 1994, 09:30 local (16:30 UTC)
- Place
- Billings, MT
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N717HLBeech 58P
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report December 2, 1994
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19940306044369A
- Case key
- 41887
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 inadvertent retraction of the landing gear while on the runway.
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
The pilot took off and entered the traffic pattern in order to practice touch-and-go landings. While on the runway after the first landing, the pilot inadvertently raised the landing gear handle, and the gear retracted.
Factual narrative
On March 6, 1994, approximately 0930 mountain standard time, the gear on a Beech 58P, N717HL, retracted during the landing roll at Billings-Logan Airport, Billings, Montana. The private pilot and his passenger were not injured, but the aircraft sustained substantial damage. The personal pleasure flight, which had just taken off from the same location for the purpose of practicing touch-and-go landings, was in visual meteorological conditions at the time of the accident. No flight plan had been filed, and there was no report of an ELT activation.
According to the FAA inspector who responded to the accident, the pilot reported that while performing touch-and-go landings on runway 28R, he accidently retracted the landing gear just after the airplane touched down.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N717HL
- Reported as
- Beech 58P
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- TJ160
- Airframe hours
- 1,837
- Engine
- Continental TSIO-520L, 310 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Intermountain Distributing Co.
- Registered owner
- Intermountain Distributing Co.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Limited (Special); Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · July 1, 1993 · 67 hours before
- Airport
- BIL · Billings-Logan Field, runway 28, 8,500 × 200 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
- 75
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 3,000 total · 1,500 in this make and model · 10 in the last 90 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 260° at 15 knots
- Visibility
- 50 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 50 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.