Central Airlines Aero Commander 500B accident
Aero Commander 500B · Accident: gear not extended during landing
From Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC87LA178
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Aero Commander 500B
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 500
- 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
- N192CA
- Operator
- Central Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC)To 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 › Checklist, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Gear extension, not performed
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Kansas City, MO, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS ON APPROACH TO KANSAS CITY INTERNATIONAL WHEN HE WAS REQUESTED TO SLOW DOWN AND FOLLOW ANOTHER AIRCRAFT. HE USED HIS CHECKLIST AND DECIDED TO LEAVE THE GEAR UP UNTIL HE WAS CLOSER TO THE AIRPORT. ON SHORT FINAL HE EXTENDED THE FLAPS BUT FAILED TO EXTEND THE GEAR. THE AIRPLANE SLID FOR 600 FEET. THE CONDENSED CHECKLIST, WHICH THE PILOT WAS USING, DID NOT INCLUDE CHECKING THE LANDING GEAR WARNING HORN BEFORE EXTENDING THE GEAR. THE AMPLIFIED CHECKLIST CONTAINS THIS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC87LA178
- Event ID
- 20001213X32168
- Case number
- MKC87LA178
- 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 1987-09-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1cb128c2150f5db2b440490ddd5dfe7ab08d1994fe7599e7bc6a58a62bc018fb; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:37:17.164Z.