GAA19CA234 · Cessna T310 R
Keystone Aerial Surveys Cessna T310 R · Accident: landing gear not configured
From Republic Airport (FRG) to Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA234
- 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 T310 R
- 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
- N358MN
- Operator
- Keystone Aerial Surveys
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Republic Airport (FRG), Farmingdale, NYTo Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE), Philadelphia, PA
- Aircraft age
- About 43 years (built 1976)
- 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
- 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
- Landing gear not configured
- 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 › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor in the retractable-landing gear, multiengine airplane reported that, while performing aerial survey training for a newly hired pilot, the airplane was slowed to the mission airspeed of 117 knots, which meant reduced power and the use of more than 15° of flaps. He added that he then pulled the landing gear warning circuit breaker to silence the landing gear warning horn to ensure clear communication but that he did not pull the landing gear motor circuit breaker. The pilot receiving instruction reported that he did not know that the instructor had pulled the landing gear warning circuit breaker.
The instructor further reported that, while returning to the departure airport, the landing checklist was "accomplished" 15 to 20 miles from the airport. He saw that the pilot was "falling behind on power and descent management" and that the airplane was high and fast for the approach. The instructor advised the pilot to correct but then began to assist the pilot when it "was taking longer [than anticipated.]" The airplane decelerated into the white airspeed arc, and the instructor moved the landing gear selector switch into the down position and added full flaps. He added that, because the flaps were added shortly after the landing gear selector switch was put into the down position, he could not tell by the flight characteristics that the landing gear had not extended. Neither he nor the pilot noticed that there was no green down-and-locked position light indicator. The airplane landed with the landing gear retracted.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and both engines.
The instructor added that, while configuring the airplane on the runway, he observed that the landing gear warning horn and landing gear motor circuit breakers were tripped. The director of maintenance reported that, during a postaccident examination, the airplane was lifted onto jacks and an emergency gear extension and three electrical landing gear retractions were conducted, and no defects were found.
In a photograph provided by the flight instructor, the landing gear warning horn and landing gear motor circuit breakers are right next to each other. Despite the instructor's statement that he did not pull the landing gear motor switch, given the proximity of the breakers to each other, it is likely that the pilot inadvertently pulled the landing gear motor switch when he pulled the landing gear warning horn switch, which prevented the gear from extending.
The airplane manufacturer's Pilot's Operating Handbook contained a note in the section titled, "Landing Gear Warning Horn," which states,
Do not pull landing gear warning circuit breaker to silence horn as this turns off the landing gear control relay, thus the landing gear cannot be retracted.
Probable cause
The pilot’s and flight instructor's failure to verify that the landing gear were extended, which resulted in a gear-up landing. Contributing to the accident was the flight instructor’s inadvertent pulling of the landing gear motor circuit, which prevented the landing gear from extending.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA234
- Event ID
- 20190325X85524
- Case number
- GAA19CA234
- 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, 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: 9850e8b3a0620d39d8c2110a54f49d9171b8fa21fb5cd41f4c4f27411bf271b8; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:41:22.889Z.