FTW95LA027 · Gardner SEA REY
Gardner SEA REY · Accident: wheels down landing in water
From Lavaca, AR to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95LA027
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Gardner SEA REY
- Aircraft type
- Gardner SEA REY
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N703SR
- Operator
- Gardner, Jerry D. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lavaca, ARTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Wheels down landing in water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Checklist, not followed
- Pilot in command › Gear retraction, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER TAKEOFF FROM A ROAD, THE GEAR WAS NOT RETRACTED. THE NEXT LANDING WAS ON A RIVER. THE PILOT CIRCLED THE AREA TO CHECK FOR OBSTRUCTIONS, AND DID NOT RETRACT THE GEAR FOR THE LANDING. DURING THE LANDING, THE AIRPLANE NOSED DOWN AND CAME TO REST WITH THE TAIL AND AFT MOUNTED ENGINE OUT OF THE WATER. THE COCKPIT INSTRUMENT PANEL WAS 'DESTROYED AND THE SWITCHES FOR ENGINE SHUTDOWN COULD NOT BE LOCATED' WITH THE CABIN SUBMERGED. THE PASSENGER AND PILOT EXITED FROM THE AIRPLANE. AS THE PASSENGER EXITED, HE WAS STRUCK BY THE OPERATING PROPELLER. IN AN ACCIDENT REPORT, THE PILOT INDICATED THAT 'MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF LANDING CHECKLIST' MIGHT HAVE PREVENTED THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FOLLOW THE LANDING CHECKLIST AND RETRACT THE LANDING GEAR FOR A WATER LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95LA027
- Event ID
- 20001206X02448
- Case number
- FTW95LA027
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ce25e8b9e099480a2b4d5f2cacc1eb6281ef381f80a045b91334d22a32890038; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:34:15.448Z.