Bering Air Raytheon Aircraft Company B200 accident

The pilot was conducting an air medical flight during early morning hours in dark night visual meteorological conditions and was flying an instrument approach to the destination airport. A review of air traffic control communications found that during the instrument approach, the pilot gave an incorrect readback twice to the terminal radar approach controller and flew through the approach course. The pilot reported that, before landing, he failed to visually check and confirm indications that the landing gear were down and locked; he also did not respond to warning tones that should have sounded to indicate this condition during the latter stages of the approach. Upon touchdown on the runway with the landing gear not extended, the airplane skidded on the underside of the fuselage and came to rest on the runway.

The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right engine mount. Although the landing gear switch was found in the down position, it could not be determined when it was placed in that position.

Evidence indicates that the accident occurred during the window of circadian low, and the pilot's sleep periods were fragmented in the days before the accident and he did not have a contiguous 8 hours of sleep that was typical of his sleep pattern when not working overnight periods; both of these factors likely contributed to the pilot being fatigued about the time of the accident. The pilot reported that he felt the effects of fatigue, including impaired judgment, as he approached the destination airport. The pilot's readback errors and his failure to extend the landing gear are consistent with performance degradation due to fatigue. The pilot cited being on a long duty period, failing to manage his rest, failing to manage the cockpit, and allowing complacency to set in as factors that affected his performance.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset