BFO91LA011 · Fairchild SA227-AC
Comair Fairchild SA227-AC · Accident: gear not extended during landing
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO91LA011
- 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
Fairchild SA227-AC
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild SA227
- 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
- N445AC
- Operator
- Comair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- 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
THE PILOT, A COMPANY CHECK AIRMAN, AND AN FAA INSPECTOR WERE ON BOARD THE AIRCRAFT FOR A CHECKRIDE WHICH WAS INTENDED TO REASSESS THE PILOT'S COMPETENCY. A MAINTENANCE TEST (AILERON RIGGING) WAS TO BE PERFORMED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE CHECK RIDE. THE FIRST MANEUVER TO BE PERFORMED WAS A NO-FLAP LANDING. ALL THREE PILOTS STATED THAT THE PILOT HAD DIFFICULTY MANAGING THE AIRCRAFT WHILE IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN; AIRSPEEDS WERE TOO SLOW, AND THE PILOT WAS CONSTANTLY MANIPULATING POWER. THE PILOT NEVER CALLED FOR THE BEFORE LANDING CHECKLIST, AND THE AIRCRAFT TOUCHED DOWN ON THE RUNWAY WITH THE LANDING GEAR UP. THE CHECK PILOT STATED THAT THE LANDING GEAR WARNING HORN CAME ON BRIEFLY, BUT THE PILOT ADDED POWER AND SILENCED THE HORN. THE FAA INSPECTOR WAS SEATED IN A PASSENGER SEAT FOR TAKEOFF AND LANDING, AND WAS NOT AWARE THAT THE LANDING GEAR WAS NOT EXTENDED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO EXTEND THE LANDING GEAR PRIOR TO TOUCHDOWN. CHECKRIDE-INDUCED PRESSURE WAS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR, AND INADEQUATE SUPERVISION BY THE CHECK PILOT WAS A FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO91LA011
- Event ID
- 20001212X24573
- Case number
- BFO91LA011
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1990-11-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 96cbbbb4f2422a48a0028e93aa7b341f2b40f2a85802cdb0e716535ae5d4fd1e; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:10:30.915Z.