Cessna 310R N455TB

Summary

On 28 September 2010 at about 19:20 local time, a Cessna 310R registered N455TB, operated by Baker George, was involved in an accident near Great Falls, Montana, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

28 September 2010 at 19:20

Classification

Accident

Location

Great Falls, Montana, United States

Nearest airport

Great Falls International (KGTF)

Coordinates

47.4828, -111.3706

Aircraft

Cessna 310R

Registration

N455TB

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Baker George

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Lethbridge → Great Falls

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR10LA476

Nobody was injured.

The uncommanded retraction of the right main landing gear during taxi due to the failure of the landing gear extension system to move the right main gear upper side link into the locked position for undetermined reasons.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

While on approach to his planned destination, the pilot lowered the landing gear handle, but the green "gear down" light for the right main landing gear did not illuminate, and the "gear in transition" light stayed on. After checking the "gear down" light, which illuminated when pushed, the pilot reached the conclusion that the problem was most likely a bad gear position indicator switch, which was a problem he had experienced before. The pilot then considered cycling the landing gear, but decided not to do so in case there was something broken in the system that might result in the right main gear remaining up once it was retracted. He then executed an uneventful landing and rollout, which included slowing to his normal taxi speed. At that point he turned off the runway onto the taxiway, and as he began to straighten the airplane to follow the taxiway centerline, the right main gear to folded back, causing the right wing to impacted the taxiway. A postaccident inspection determined that the right main gear upper side link (over-center lock) had not moved fully to its locked position, and that the side-loads generated by the turn to align with the taxiway were transferred to the gear activation system. The transfer of those loads then resulted in the overload failure of the right main gear strut-mounted bellcrank. It could not be determined what caused the right main landing gear activation linkage to be far enough out of adjustment as to result in the upper side link not moving to its fully locked position.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.