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ATL92LA004 · Beech F33A

11 Oct 1991 · Franklin, NC, United States

Beech F33A · Accident: gear not extended during landing

From Asheville Regional Airport (AVL) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
ATL92LA004
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

Beech F33A

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 33
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
N37MC
Operator
Hill, Robert J. · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Asheville Regional Airport (AVL), Asheville, NCTo 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
Gear not extended
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 › Gear extension, not performed

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

WHILE IN THE FLARE, THE PROPELLER BLADES BEGAN TO CONTACT THE RUNWAY SURFACE. THE PILOT REALIZED THAT HE HAD NOT EXTENDED THE LANDING GEAR PRIOR TO THE APPROACH. HE EXECUTED A GO AROUND WHILE LOWERING THE GEAR. FLAPS REMAINED FULL DOWN. HE WAS UNABLE TO TAKE OFF STRAIGHT AHEAD DUE TO RISING TERRAIN, SO HE EXECUTED A 180 DEGREE TURN BACK TOWARDS THE AIRPORT. UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE, HE LANDED THE AIRPLANE IN A NEARBY PLOWED FIELD. ON LANDING ROLL, THE AIRPLANE CROSSED A CREEK BED AND COLLIDED WITH THE WEST BANK OF THE CREEK. THE PILOT REPORTED NO MECHANICAL PROBLEMS WITH THE AIRPLANE. AN EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE AFTER THE ACCIDENT REVEALED THAT THE GEAR WARNING CIRCUIT BREAKER WAS TRIPPED. AN EXAMINATION OF THE RUNWAY REVEALED NUMEROUS PROPELLER SLASH MARKS. THE PROPELLER BLADE TIPS WERE SCORED AND CURLED.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO LOWER THE LANDING GEAR RESULTING IN A GEAR UP CONTACT WITH THE RUNWAY, AND THE EVENTUAL LOSS OF CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL92LA004
Event ID
20001212X18238
Case number
ATL92LA004
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: d1334e192c251c696022188ca9e967a33890a024221a9312928701433ccec83c; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:17:33.549Z.