ERA17LA287 · Cessna R182
Cessna R182 · Accident: system/component malfunction/failure (non-power) on approach
From Tampa Executive Airport (VDF) to Clearwater Air Park (CLW)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17LA287
- 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 R182
- 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
- N9155C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tampa Executive Airport (VDF), Tampa, FLTo Clearwater Air Park (CLW), Clearwater, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 39 years (built 1978)
- 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
- Approach
- Defining eventThe 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
- System/component malfunction/failure (non-power)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot stated that he performed a preflight inspection of the airplane and did not notice any hydraulic leaks near the landing gear system. After takeoff, he retracted the landing gear and noted that the amber landing gear "UP" indicator had illuminated. While on the downwind leg of the traffic pattern, the pilot attempted to extend the landing gear, but they did not extend completely and lock. He then departed the traffic pattern and performed the landing gear malfunction procedures in the pilot operating handbook to no avail. Next, he performed several maneuvers to lock the landing gear in the down position for about 1 hour but was unsuccessful and chose to return to the airport and perform a gear-up landing. After landing, the pilot tried to maintain directional control of the airplane; it came to rest on the runway and sustained substantial damage to the left horizontal stabilizer.
Postaccident examination of the hydraulic system revealed that there was no hydraulic fluid in the reservoir and that hydraulic fluid was leaking from the rubber landing gear down return line. The line was removed, and a leak was noted. The airframe manufacturer's service manual indicated that all rubber parts in the landing gear system, which includes the rubber landing gear down return line, should be replaced every 5 years. Examination of the airplane's maintenance records revealed that there were no maintenance entries related to servicing or replacing that line. Because the landing gear down return line was improperly maintained and was never replaced, it is likely that the line failed and leaked hydraulic fluid, depleting the amount of fluid needed for the landing gear system to maintain hydraulic pressure to extend and lock the main landing gear.
Probable cause
The improper maintenance of the landing gear system and subsequent failure of the hydraulic landing gear down return line, which resulted in a loss of hydraulic fluid and the pilot’s inability to extend and lock the main landing gear.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17LA287
- Event ID
- 20170819X50603
- Case number
- ERA17LA287
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 9b151e51c3fc03fcd8265b5b360b5bfe940715cc8cb4976639b12d711cfee8d4; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:43:01.702Z.