Piper PA28R N533K

Summary

On 4 June 2020 at about 17:19 local time, a Piper PA28R registered N533K was involved in an accident near Corpus Cristi, Texas, 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

4 June 2020 at 17:19

Classification

Accident

Location

Corpus Cristi, Texas, United States

Nearest airport

Corpus Christi International (CRP)

Coordinates

27.7722, -97.5025

Aircraft

Piper PA28R

Registration

N533K

Category

Airplane

Year built

1977

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Boerne → Corpus Cristi

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN20CA212

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's failure to utilze the emergency landing gear extension procedure after a short-circuit within the normal landing gear system, which resulted in a landing gear collapse during landing.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The commercial pilot reported that during a visual approach for landing at the destination airport, the landing gear position indicator did not indicate that the landing gear was down and locked after it was selected down. The pilot reported he requested a fly by the air traffic control tower, which confirmed the landing gear was extended and cleared the airplane to land. During landing rollout, the landing gear collapsed, and the airplane impacted the runway surface resulting in structural damage to the external longerons on the bottom of the fuselage. During recovery of the airplane, it was noted the landing gear circuit breaker was popped. The circuit breaker was reset, the master switch selected on, and the landing gear was lowered using the landing gear handle. A postaccident functional test of the landing gear using the normal and emergency extension procedures revealed the landing gear extended without incident. The pilot further reported that after maintenance personnel removed the cockpit multifunction displays, he found a piece of screw/nut on the contacts of the landing gear control handle behind the instrument panel, which most-likely created a short-circuit and caused the landing gear circuit breaker to pop. The pilot did not use the airplane's emergency landing gear extension procedure to extend the landing gear during the accident flight.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.