Piper PA 24-260 N9360P

Summary

On 8 February 2018 at about 00:00 local time, a Piper PA 24-260 registered N9360P was involved in an accident near Fargo, North Dakota, 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

8 February 2018 at 00:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Fargo, North Dakota, United States

Nearest airport

Hector Intl (FAR)

Coordinates

46.9206, -96.8158

Aircraft

Piper PA 24-260

Registration

N9360P

Category

Airplane

Year built

1969

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Fargo → Fargo

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Dusk

NTSB number

CEN18LA097

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's failure to use the published emergency procedures to manually extend the landing gear when an electrical failure precluded normal extension of the landing gear, resulting in the gear collapse during landing. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to ensure, before takeoff, that the battery was fully charged after its depletion due to a faulty alternator.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The private pilot taxied the airplane to the airport jet center to pick up a passenger for a personal flight. When leaving the jet center, the airplane's engine did not start. A ground power unit was used to charge the airplane's battery to start the engine. The pilot verified that the battery was charging. The pilot then taxied the airplane to the runway and performed an engine run-up but did not verify before takeoff that the battery was fully charged by checking the ammeter indication. After departure and after raising the landing gear, the pilot realized that he did not receive a radio call from the tower controller and noticed that all of the radios were inoperative, which indicated a loss of electrical power. The pilot subsequently re-entered the traffic pattern and rocked the airplane's wings to provide an indication to the tower controller of the radio difficulties. The controller provided a green light to indicate that the airplane was cleared to land, and the pilot used normal procedures for the landing. However, due to the loss of electrical power, the pilot initiated an emergency gear extension but was unable to remove the cover plate over the emergency gear handle. The pilot then bent the cover back, placed the emergency extension rod into the right hole on the torque tube, and rocked the rod back and forth. The pilot checked the mirror on the airplane's wing tip, and the landing gear appeared to be down. When the airplane touched down on the runway, the landing gear collapsed, and the airplane slid off the runway and impacted a runway sign, causing substantial damage to the airplane. The pilot did not use the emergency procedures in the airplane flight manual or abbreviated checklist to properly extend the gear despite being trained to do so. An examination of the electrical system revealed that a faulty alternator caused the electrical failure and that the battery was not fully charged before takeoff.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.