LAX99LA278 · Cessna TR182
Cessna TR182 · Accident: wheels up landing
From O61 · Cameron Park, CA to Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX99LA278
- 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
Cessna TR182
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N4809R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From O61 · Cameron Park, CATo Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Salt Lake City, UT
- 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 up landing
- 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 verified
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot believed that he completed the GUMP check on approach, but he was distracted by traffic while entering the pattern and did not verify that the green gear down light was illuminated or verify visually that the gear was extended. In the landing flare he realized too late that the gear was not extended and landed gear-up. The pilot said that the gear system had a history of problems with the indicator lights and warning horn. The gear and its warning systems were inspected. After selection of either the up or down positions, the GEAR PUMP circuit breaker would open prior to completion of the cycle. When the circuit breaker was reset the gear continued to its selected position. The green gear indication light illuminated about 10 seconds after cycle completion; however, the aural warning horn did not sound immediately and was faint when it did engage. There was no damage found to the tire sidewalls, gear struts or wheels, indicating that the landing gear was fully retracted on touchdown. Placement of the gear handle in the down position caused the gear to fall from the stowed position whether the power was on or off. The fuselage was distorted from a prior ground damage incident where the airplane was blown over in high winds while parked. The incident corresponded to the onset of the gear system discrepancies.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to verify the landing gear was in the extended position. A factor in the accident was gear warning system's unresolved discrepancies.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX99LA278
- Event ID
- 20001212X19561
- Case number
- LAX99LA278
- 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: ca3ecd1d3400a6320751b816d2448ce2ee117ecdd7026069b3a747dbfca17603; retrieved 2026-09-22T14:16:05.094Z.