West Palm Beach Int. Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

West Palm Beach, Florida 33406
Thursday, February 14, 2002 6:49 EST

NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident

After a normal taxi and takeoff, the airplane's landing gear would not retract after liftoff. After unsuccessfully attempting to raise the landing gear manually, the flight crew elected to return to the airport. During the landing flare, the ground spoilers deployed when the throttles were brought to idle. The airplane descended rapidly and landed hard, and the right main landing gear collapsed. The investigation determined that a mechanic had wedged wooden sticks into the airplane's weight-on-wheels (WOW) switches to force them into the ground mode while the airplane was on jacks during maintenance. The mechanic said that he used the sticks to disable the WOW switches to gain access to the maintenance data acquisition unit, which was necessary to troubleshoot an overspeed alert discrepancy. After the maintenance was performed, the sticks were not removed, and the airplane was returned to service. No notation about the disabled WOW switches was entered in the work logs. Postaccident ground testing of the accident airplane's cockpit crew alerting system and examination of flight data recorder (FDR) data determined that the system was functioning properly and that it produced a blue WOW fault message, an amber WOW fault message, and a red GND SPOILER warning message when the accident flight conditions were recreated. The messages produced were consistent with FDR and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) information. Ground spoilers will deploy when the throttles are brought to idle if the spoilers are armed and the WOW switches are in the ground mode. The G-V Quick Reference Handbook (QRH) cautions flight crews not to move thrust reverser levers and to switch the GND SPOILER armed to off following an amber WOW FAULT message. A red GND SPOILER message calls for the flight crew to disarm the ground spoilers and pull the circuit breakers to make sure the spoilers are not rearmed inadvertently. Based on CVR information, there was no indication that the flight crew followed checklist procedures contained in the G-V's QRH that referenced WOW faults or GND SPOILER faults. Preflight checklist procedures also called for the flight crew to conduct a visual inspection of the WOW switches.

NTSB Probable Cause Narrative

The flight crew's failure to follow preflight inspection/checklist procedures, which resulted in their failure to detect wooden sticks in the landing gear weight-on-wheel switches and their failure in flight to respond to crew alert messages to disarm the ground spoilers, which deployed when the crew moved the throttles to idle during the landing flare, causing the airplane to land hard. Contributing to the accident was maintenance personnel's failure to remove the sticks from the weight-on-wheels switches after maintenance was completed.

Event Information

Type of Event Accident
Event Date 2/14/2002
Event Day of the Week Thursday
Time of Event 649
Event Time Zone Eastern Standard Time
Event City West Palm Beach
Event State FLORIDA
Event Country --
Zipcode of the event site 33406
Event Date Year 2002
Event Date Month 2
MidAir Collision Indicator No
On Ground Collision occurred ? No
Event Location Latitude 264052N
Event Location Longitude 0800622W
Event Location Airport West Palm Beach Int.
Event Location Nearest Airport ID KPBI
Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport On Airport
Distance from airport in statute miles --
Degrees magnetic from airport --
Airport Elevation 19
Weather Briefing Completeness Full
Investigator's weather source Weather Observation Facility
Time of the weather observation 653 Eastern Standard Time
Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) --
Weather Observation Facility ID PBI
Elevation of weather observation facility 19
Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) --
Time Zone of the weather observation EST
Lighting Conditions Dawn
Lowest Ceiling Height 9000
Lowest Non-Ceiling Height 3000
Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions Scattered
Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling Overcast
Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) --
Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) --
Visibility (Statute Miles) 10
Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) 15
Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) 13
Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) 330
Variable Wind Indicator Wind direction could be determined
Wind Speed (knots) 6
Wind Velocity Indicator --
Wind Gust Indicator Not Gusting
Wind Gust (knots) --
Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) 30.12
Density Altitude (feet) --
Intensity of Precipitation Light
METAR weather report --
Event Highest Injury None
On Ground, Fatal Injuries --
On Ground, Minor Injuries --
On Ground, Serious Injuries --
Injury Total Fatal --
Injury Total Minor --
Injury Total None 2
Injury Total Serious --
Injury Total All --
Investigating Agency NTSB
NTSB Docket Number (internal use) 13197
NTSB Notification Source FAA SE REG COM CTR
NTSB Notification Date Feb 14 2002 12:00AM
NTSB Notification Time 730
Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information DMS
Date of most recent change to record Jan 16 2007 2:39PM
User who most recently changed record LEMA
Basic weather conditions Visual Meteorological Cond
FAA District Office Fort Lauderdale

Aircraft Involved

Aircraft #1

Aircraft Registration Number N777TY
NTSB Number MIA02LA060
Missing Aircraft Indicator --
Federal Aviation Reg. Part Part 91: General Aviation
Type of Flight Plan filed IFR
Flight plan Was Activated? No
Damage Substantial
Aircraft Fire None
Aircraft Explosion None
Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name Gulfstream Aerospace
Aircraft Model G-V
Aircraft Series Identifier --
Aircraft Serial Number 508
Certified Max Gross Weight 90900
Aircraft Category Airplane
Aircraft Registration Class U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil
Aircraft is a homebuilt? No
Flight Crew Seats --
Cabin Crew Seats --
Passenger Seats --
Total number of seats on the aircraft 10
Number of Engines 2
Fixed gear or retractable gear Retractable
Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection AAIP
Date of Last Inspection Jan 27 2002 12:00AM
Airframe hours since last inspection 1945.6
Airframe Hours 1945.6
ELT Installed Yes
ELT Activated No
ELT Aided Location of Event Site No
ELT Type --
Aircraft Owner Name BB Five Inc.
Aircraft Owner Street Address 1209 N Orange St.
Aircraft Owner City Wilmington
Aircraft Owner State DE
Aircraft Owner Country USA
Aircraft Owner Zipcode 19801
Operator is an individual? No
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? --
Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation --
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) Positioning
Second Pilot on Board Yes
Departure Point Same as Event Yes
Departure Airport Code PBI
Departure City Palm Beach
Departure State FL
Departure Country USA
Departure Time 640
Departure Time Zone EST
Destination Same as Local Flt --
Destination Airport Code TEB
Destination City Teterboro
Destination State NJ
Destination Country USA
Specific Phase of Flight Landing - flare/touchdown
Report sent to ICAO? Yes
Evacuation occurred No
Date of most recent change to record Jan 16 2007 2:39PM
User who most recently changed record LEMA
Since inspection or accident Time of Accident
Event Location Runway Number and Location 27R
Runway Length 7989
Runway Width 150
Sight Seeing flight No
Air Medical Flight No
Medical Flight --