ERA26LA043 · Beech 95-B55
Elkhorn Valley Aviation Beech 95-B55 · Accident: system/component malfunction/failure (non-power) on approach
From Key West International Airport (EYW) to Tri-County Airport (BCR)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA26LA043
- 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
- 0
- 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 95-B55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 55
- 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
- N711FA
- Operator
- Elkhorn Valley Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Key West International Airport (EYW), Key West, FLTo Tri-County Airport (BCR), Bonifay, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 49 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
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilots reported that the instructional flight was the first leg of a multi-leg trip. Upon arrival at their initial destination, the landing gear selector was moved to the down position; however, the landing gear position lights indicated that the landing gear was not down and locked. Due to an absence of airport personnel to visually confirm the position of the landing gear, the instructor elected to divert to an airport with an air traffic control tower. Upon arrival, the air traffic controller reported that the nose and right main landing gear were extended; however, the left main gear was not. In an effort to extend the landing gear, the pilots attempted to troubleshoot the malfunction. They performed the emergency gear extension procedure, and multiple flight maneuvers to force the landing gear down, without success. The pilots also noted that the landing gear motor circuit breaker was open and would not reset. After consulting with maintenance personnel, they elected to delay landing, in an attempt to reset the circuit breaker, preferring a gear up landing rather than a partial landing gear extension that could result in a loss of control. The circuit breaker was subsequently reset, and the landing gear was retracted in preparation for a gear up landing. The pilots confirmed with air traffic control that all three landing gear were retracted; however, the left main gear door remained “ajar.” An uneventful gear up landing was conducted, which resulted in substantial damage to the underside of the fuselage. A postaccident examination of the airplane by an FAA inspector revealed abrasion damage to the left inboard landing gear door, damage near both of its hinges, and a failed aft hinge, consistent with the open door contacting the runway during landing. In addition, the actuator rods that mechanically connect the landing gear motor gearbox to the left main landing gear and left inboard door had failed. The left main landing gear was likely unable to extend due to the failed actuator rods; however, it could not be conclusively determined which actuator rod failed first.
Probable cause
The failure of the left main landing gear actuator rods, which resulted in a gear up landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA26LA043
- Event ID
- 20251118202019
- Case number
- ERA26LA043
- 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, 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: 82e383376d2d76e9979fba2ddb42476478d936d569a6bfb54815b1098dc84e45; retrieved 2026-09-16T20:33:06.918Z.