Beechcraft 36 N15DN

Summary

On 1 June 2020 at about 16:30 local time, a Beechcraft 36 registered N15DN, operated by Snowflake Aircraft Llc, was involved in an accident near Batavia, New York, United States. One person was 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

1 June 2020 at 16:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Batavia, New York, United States

Nearest airport

Genesee County (GVQ)

Coordinates

43.0317, -78.1733

Aircraft

Beechcraft 36

Registration

N15DN

Category

Airplane

Year built

1989

Engines

1

Operator

Snowflake Aircraft Llc

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Positioning

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Batavia → Batavia

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA20CA203

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's failure to extend the landing gear during a precautionary landing after an electrical failure.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

According to the pilot, after a normal start and runup, he departed the airport and climbed to the cruise altitude. After reaching that altitude, he noted a flashing message indicator on the GPS that stated there was an electrical system issue. The pilot informed air traffic control that he would return to the departure airport to repair the issue, and about 7 miles from the airport, the GPS and primary flight display began to flash. The pilot pulled the circuit breakers to the flashing displays and set up for a straight in approach to the runway. He realized the airplane needed to lose altitude and attempted to extend the flaps, however, the flaps did not extend. He reset the circuit breakers, but the flaps still did not extend. He continued the approach, mistakenly forgot to extend the landing gear, and landed on the runway with the landing gear retracted. During the accident sequence, the fuselage was substantially damaged. After the accident, the pilot realized that he was interrupted during his starting checklist and concluded that he did not turn on the alternators (alternator and standby alternator) during the start procedures. Therefore, the airplane avionics were running on battery power the entire flight, which resulted in a loss of electrical power. He reported no other mechanical malfunctions of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation prior to the accident.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.