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WPR21LA134 · Beech G35

26 Feb 2021 · Tucson, AZ, United States

Beech G35 · Accident: landing gear not configured

From Camarillo International Airport (CMA) to Tucson International Airport (TUS)

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Event

NTSB case
WPR21LA134
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
Event fatalities
Unknown
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

Beech G35

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 35
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
N4499D
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Camarillo International Airport (CMA), Camarillo, CATo Tucson International Airport (TUS), Tucson, AZ
Aircraft age
About 65 years (built 1956)
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 oper/perf/capability
  • Personnel issues › Action/decision
  • Personnel issues › Task performance

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

NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that while in the local traffic pattern, he was distracted by radio transmissions from the tower air traffic controller regarding maintaining his airspeed and multiple landing runway reassignments. His pre-landing check was interrupted, and he did not lower the landing gear, and landed gear up on the runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the undercarriage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane. The pilot reported that he was wearing noise-cancelling headsets and did not hear the warning horn. During the airplane recovery, the pilot reported that the throttle was in the retarded position and the warning horn was blaring. The landing gear handle was placed in the “down” position and extended normally.

Probable cause

The pilot’s distraction in the cockpit which interrupted his pre-landing checklist which resulted in his failure to configure the landing gear prior to touchdown.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record WPR21LA134
Event ID
20210316102765
Case number
WPR21LA134
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, cause areas. 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: de3b92f3ef4b5501ddebea6bd3cfe3c3eea9600428705fb8b1acf04bbe3c800f; retrieved 2026-09-16T13:50:04.761Z.