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MIA06LA048 · Cessna 310N

18 Jan 2006 · Destin, FL, United States

Cessna 310N · Accident: gear collapsed during landing

From Cedar Ridge Airport (GA62) to Destin Executive Airport (DTS)

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Event

NTSB case
MIA06LA048
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
Unknown
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 310N

Aircraft type
Cessna 310
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
N4196Q
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Cedar Ridge Airport (GA62), Griffin, GATo Destin Executive Airport (DTS), Destin, FL
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 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

  • Landing gear, gear switch › Bent

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

In preparation for landing, the pilot lowered the landing gear and noted the three green DOWN AND LOCKED lights were illuminated. Shortly thereafter, he heard a "thump" which he thought originated from under the floor of the airplane. He then noted the nose landing gear light was still green, but the main gear lights had extinguished. The pilot proceeded with the landing and did not attempt to recycle the landing gear because he thought it might cause further damage. When the airplane touched down, the right main landing gear light illuminated but the left indicator light remained unlit. The pilot allowed the airplane to roll out and avoided braking and excessive steering inputs. About 200 feet from the taxiway turnoff, the left main landing gear collapsed. The left propeller struck the runway, stopping the engine, and the left wing and horizontal stabilizer also struck the runway. The airplane made a left sliding turn for about 150 feet before coming to a stop on the side of the runway. A post-accident examination by an A&P mechanic revealed the down limit switch, which operates the landing gear mechanical stop, had malfunctioned. The switch was found bent in the up position. The gear motor continued to run, causing the gearbox to over-travel and pull on the landing gear rods, retracting the landing gear.

Probable cause

The down limit switch, which operates the landing gear mechanical stop, was bent in the up position and allowed the gear motor to continued to run, causing the gearbox to over-travel, pull on the landing gear rods, and retract the landing gear.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA06LA048
Event ID
20060206X00165
Case number
MIA06LA048
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, coordinates. 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: 7e789c547bbf12c2a9443177fa02001125cf84371d65a1bb3af6485b505e6969; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:09:15.215Z.