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SEA08LA048 · Piper PA-30

16 Dec 2007 · Bridger, MT, United States

Piper PA-30 · Accident: gear collapsed during landing

From Laurel Municipal Airport (6S8) to Bridger Municipal Airport (6S1)

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Event

NTSB case
SEA08LA048
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

Piper PA-30

Aircraft type
Piper PA-30
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
N7252Y
Operator
James Guyer
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Laurel Municipal Airport (6S8), Laurel, MTTo Bridger Municipal Airport (6S1), Bridger, MT
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 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

  • Reason for occurrence undetermined

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

NTSB narrative

As the pilot approached the destination airport and entered on the downwind leg, he reduced the engine power and lowered the landing gear handle. He noticed that the landing gear did not extend and reset the circuit breaker, which was popped open. The pilot recycled the landing gear, then verified that the nose gear was down, and he received a green light that indicated all three gear were down and locked. While on final, he noted gusty wind conditions and that the airplane was low. He added power to arrest the sink rate and the airplane landed in a slightly nose-low attitude. The landing gear collapsed and the right propeller struck the ground, followed by the left propeller. Examination of the landing gear system found no evidence of a mechanical anomaly. The airplane incurred structural damage to the underside of the fuselage.

Probable cause

The landing gear collapsed during landing for undetermined reasons.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record SEA08LA048
Event ID
20071219X01979
Case number
SEA08LA048
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: 25baae17ee7c4e543694d0f296e2ec2f3997749f4333163f6989e0e038e59d75; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:14:01.460Z.