Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Rancho Murieta Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Rancho Murieta, California 95683
Monday, February 13, 2006 19:01 PST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The airplane landed short of the approach end of the runway following a landing gear extension malfunction and the nose and main landing gear were sheared off. The pilot departed on a cross-country flight and he was unable to retract the airplane's landing gear, and diverted to another airport to have a mechanic inspect the landing gear. The mechanic placed the airplane on jacks, inspected, and functionally checked the landing gear. No mechanical anomalies were noted, and the mechanic returned the airplane to service. The pilot refueled the airplane to its capacity of 5.5 hours of flight time, and continued the flight to his destination airport. Approximately 4 hours later he arrived at the destination airport and noted it was still light outside. He placed the landing gear handle in the down position, but did not receive a down and locked indication inside the cockpit. He then tried unsuccessfully to manually lower the landing gear several times, but it did not fully extend. The pilot flew around the airport for an additional 1.5 hours trying to extend the landing gear. At that point, he realized the airplane was in a low fuel state and it was dark outside. He did not feel that he could safely make it a nearby airport and decided to make a precautionary landing. Neither the pilot nor fire department personnel waiting on the ground could get the airport runway lights turned on. The airplane landed short of the runway. The Safety Board investigator-in-charge, and a Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness inspector examined the landing gear system. With the use of an ohmmeter and the airplane's wiring diagram, they were able to determine that the nose landing gear limit switch had an intermittent fault in the normally closed circuit position. According to the airplane's manufacturer, an intermittent fault in the nose landing gear limit switch would cause the landing gear motor to fail to complete either the landing gear UP or DOWN cycle.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
an electrical fault in the nose gear limit switch circuit, which lead to an intermittent failure of the landing gear extension system. Also causal was the pilot's failure to fully complete the emergency gear extension procedure. A factor in the accident was the inoperative runway edge lights.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 2/13/2006 |
| Event Day of the Week | Monday |
| Time of Event | 1901 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Standard Time |
| Event City | Rancho Murieta |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 95683 |
| Event Date Year | 2006 |
| Event Date Month | 2 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 382921N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1210617W |
| Event Location Airport | Rancho Murieta |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | RIU |
| 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 | 141 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1945 Pacific Standard Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 270 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | MHR |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 96 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 9 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PST |
| Lighting Conditions | Dusk |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 13 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 9 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 140 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 3 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30.03 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| 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 | 1 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 21467 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Feb 13 2006 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | May 29 2007 12:24PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\lema |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | WP-SAC-FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N9212P |
| NTSB Number | LAX06LA114 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | VFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | No |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Piper |
| Aircraft Model | PA-24-260 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 24-4707 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 3100 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 4 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | Jul 1 2005 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 18 |
| Airframe Hours | 2494 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | Yes |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | -- |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Lawrence P. Girelli |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Rancho Murieta |
| Aircraft Owner State | CA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 95683 |
| 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) | Personal |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | 1V9 |
| Departure City | DELTA |
| Departure State | CO |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1330 |
| Departure Time Zone | MST |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | crash at destination city |
| Destination Airport Code | RIU |
| Destination City | Rancho Murieta |
| Destination State | CA |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Landing - flare/touchdown |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Apr 19 2007 4:56PM |
| User who most recently changed record | COOS |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 22 |
| Runway Length | 3800 |
| Runway Width | 75 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |