CHI91LA201 · Piper PA-28-201R
Travel Express Piper PA-28-201R · Accident: gear collapsed during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to 2
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI91LA201
- 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
Piper PA-28-201R
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N2126K
- Operator
- Travel Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 2
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Gear collapsed
- 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 › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ONCE THE SINGLE ENGINE, RETRACTABLE GEAR AIRPLANE HAD TAKEN OFF THE PILOT ENGAGED THE OVERRIDE FUNCTION OF LANDING GEAR'S AUTO EXTENSION SYSTEM. PRIOR TO HIS ARRIVAL AT THE DESTINATION THE PILOT DISENGAGED THE OVERRIDE FUNCTION. THE PILOT PERFORMED HIS PRELANDING CHECKLIST DURING HIS APPROACH TO LAND AND NOTED THREE GREEN LIGHTS INDICATING GEAR EXTENSION. UPON DEPARTURE THE PILOT ACCELERATED TO A HIGHER THAN NORMAL SPEED, DUE TO PERCEIVED RESIDUAL WAKE TURBULENCE, THE AIRPLANE LIFTED OFF AND THE LANDING GEAR BEGAN TO RETRACT. THE AIRPLANE SETTLED ONTO THE RUNWAY AND SLID OFF INTO THE GRASS. THE GEAR SELECTOR SWITCH WAS FOUND IN THE UP POSITION. THE LANDING GEAR AUTO EXTENSION SYSTEM FUNCTIONS ON THE BASIS OF LOWER AIRSPEEDS AND REDUCED POWER. THE PILOT COULD NOT RECALL IF HE HAD PUT THE GEAR SELECTOR SWITCH IN THE DOWN POSITION DURING HIS ARRIVAL AT THE ACCIDENT AIRPORT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S INADEQUATE PRE-FLIGHT INSPECTION. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WERE THE LANDING GEAR LEVER NOT BEING ENGAGED, THE USE OF AN INADEQUATE PROCEDURE BY THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND, AND THE INADVERTENT GEAR RETRACTION DURING TAKEOFF ROLL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI91LA201
- Event ID
- 20001212X17233
- Case number
- CHI91LA201
- 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: 98fd92bbbeaf7b84ea010fd5cfdc7b9dfaf9af92e60299cf0156f76fa7654640; retrieved 2026-09-23T04:01:44.179Z.