Individually Owned: 151,845
Corporate Owned: 143,699
Lake Down Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Windermere, Florida 34786
Saturday, July 4, 1998 18:45 EDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The pilot stated he completed the landing checklist which included checking for a gear up light and visually ensuring the gear was up. According to the pilot, after touchdown, the seaplane violently dove under the water. According to a witness, the seaplane touched down, skipped on the water, and then nose dived under water. The witness also stated that during the landing, the gear was up. During the rescue, he stated the gear was down. The FAA inspector stated he found the right main landing gear was in a position halfway between up and down, and rotated rearward. The left main gear was in a down and locked position. Examination of the landing gear extension/retraction system did not reveal any abnormalities. The pilot stated that the landing gear switch was designed so a closed guard, where the guard points down, indicated down and locked gear. In order to put the gear down, one could simply touch the guard because it is spring loaded to a down position. The pilot believed that the bouncing on landing could have caused the guard to close.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The inadequate design of the landing gear switch by the builder which allowed an inadvertent activation of the landing gear switch, leading to a gear extension during a water landing.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 7/4/1998 |
| Event Day of the Week | Saturday |
| Time of Event | 1845 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Daylight Time |
| Event City | WINDERMERE |
| Event State | FLORIDA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 34786 |
| Event Date Year | 1998 |
| Event Date Month | 7 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | |
| Event Location Longitude | |
| Event Location Airport | LAKE DOWN |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | NONE |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1853 Eastern Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 130 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | ORL |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 113 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 15 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | EDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 6000 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Scattered |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 2 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 31 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 24 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 160 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 7 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 0 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | 2100 |
| Intensity of Precipitation | Unknown |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Serious |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | 1 |
| Injury Total All | 1 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 468 |
| NTSB Notification Source | -- |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jul 4 1998 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1935 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | Feb 16 2001 11:54AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Basic weather conditions | Instrument Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N26RL |
| NTSB Number | ATL98LA093 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Lane Progressive Aerodyne, Inc |
| Aircraft Model | SEAREY |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | SEAREY |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 1MK045 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 1370 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | Yes |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 2 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | Jun 16 1998 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 7 |
| Airframe Hours | 60 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | ROBERT LANE |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | POST OFFICE BOX 716 |
| Aircraft Owner City | OCOEE |
| Aircraft Owner State | FL |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 34761 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | |
| Operator City | |
| Operator State | |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | |
| Operator Code | |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | Unknown |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Personal |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | NONE |
| Departure City | |
| Departure State | |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 1815 |
| Departure Time Zone | EDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | dest & departure same, accident can occur anywhere |
| Destination Airport Code | |
| Destination City | |
| Destination State | |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Feb 20 2001 6:29PM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 0 |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |