Auburn Municipal Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

Auburn, Washington 98002
Friday, August 18, 2006 19:05 PDT

NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident

After taking off and determining that the landing gear would not retract properly, and believing that the gear was in the down and locked position, the pilot elected to proceed to the destination airport. After touching down and rolling out on the main landing gear wheels, the nose landing gear was then lowered onto the runway's surface. After the nose landing gear contacted the runway all three landing gear retracted. A post-accident examination of the airplane revealed that the landing gear retraction motor had separated from its rear bulkhead attachment. The component's rivets were fractured in the contact surface plane, with deformation and smeared features observed to be consistent with overstress. It could not be determined when the overstress event occurred.

NTSB Probable Cause Narrative

The failure of the landing gear's normal retraction/extension assembly due to an overload condition.

Event Information

Type of Event Accident
Event Date 8/18/2006
Event Day of the Week Friday
Time of Event 1905
Event Time Zone Pacific Daylight Time
Event City Auburn
Event State WASHINGTON
Event Country --
Zipcode of the event site 98002
Event Date Year 2006
Event Date Month 8
MidAir Collision Indicator No
On Ground Collision occurred ? No
Event Location Latitude 471940N
Event Location Longitude 1221336W
Event Location Airport Auburn Municipal Airport
Event Location Nearest Airport ID S50
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 63
Weather Briefing Completeness --
Investigator's weather source Weather Observation Facility
Time of the weather observation 1856 Pacific Daylight Time
Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) 318
Weather Observation Facility ID SEA
Elevation of weather observation facility 433
Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) 8
Time Zone of the weather observation PDT
Lighting Conditions Day
Lowest Ceiling Height --
Lowest Non-Ceiling Height 24937
Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions Few
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) 2
Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) 9
Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) 350
Variable Wind Indicator Wind direction could be determined
Wind Speed (knots) 11
Wind Velocity Indicator --
Wind Gust Indicator Not Gusting
Wind Gust (knots) --
Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) 30.04
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 3
Injury Total Serious --
Injury Total All --
Investigating Agency NTSB
NTSB Docket Number (internal use) 21025
NTSB Notification Source Regional Operations Center
NTSB Notification Date Aug 18 2006 12:00AM
NTSB Notification Time --
Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information DMS
Date of most recent change to record Feb 26 2007 11:14AM
User who most recently changed record NTSB\lema
Basic weather conditions Visual Meteorological Cond
FAA District Office Seattle, Washington

Aircraft Involved

Aircraft #1

Aircraft Registration Number N6249P
NTSB Number SEA06LA166
Missing Aircraft Indicator --
Federal Aviation Reg. Part Part 91: General Aviation
Type of Flight Plan filed IFR
Flight plan Was Activated? Yes
Damage Substantial
Aircraft Fire None
Aircraft Explosion None
Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name Piper
Aircraft Model PA-24-250
Aircraft Series Identifier --
Aircraft Serial Number 24-1356
Certified Max Gross Weight 2800
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 Nov 1 2005 12:00AM
Airframe hours since last inspection --
Airframe Hours 5061
ELT Installed Yes
ELT Activated No
ELT Aided Location of Event Site No
ELT Type --
Aircraft Owner Name MC Air Inc.
Aircraft Owner Street Address --
Aircraft Owner City Redmond
Aircraft Owner State WA
Aircraft Owner Country USA
Aircraft Owner Zipcode 98053
Operator is an individual? Yes
Operator Name Chad A. Hankins
Operator Same as Owner? No
Operator Is Doing Business As --
Operator Address Same as Owner? No
Operator Street Address --
Operator City Sammamish
Operator State WA
Operator Country USA
Operator Zip code 98075
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 AST
Departure City Astoria
Departure State OR
Departure Country USA
Departure Time 1800
Departure Time Zone PDT
Destination Same as Local Flt crash at destination city
Destination Airport Code S50
Destination City Auburn
Destination State WA
Destination Country USA
Specific Phase of Flight Landing - flare/touchdown
Report sent to ICAO? --
Evacuation occurred --
Date of most recent change to record Dec 13 2006 4:58PM
User who most recently changed record STAM
Since inspection or accident Last Inspection
Event Location Runway Number and Location 34
Runway Length 3400
Runway Width 75
Sight Seeing flight No
Air Medical Flight No
Medical Flight --