Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Great Falls International Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Great Falls, Montana 59401
Tuesady, September 28, 2010 13:20 MDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
While on approach to his planned destination, the pilot lowered the landing gear handle, but the green "gear down" light for the right main landing gear did not illuminate, and the "gear in transition" light stayed on. After checking the "gear down" light, which illuminated when pushed, the pilot reached the conclusion that the problem was most likely a bad gear position indicator switch, which was a problem he had experienced before. The pilot then considered cycling the landing gear, but decided not to do so in case there was something broken in the system that might result in the right main gear remaining up once it was retracted. He then executed an uneventful landing and rollout, which included slowing to his normal taxi speed. At that point he turned off the runway onto the taxiway, and as he began to straighten the airplane to follow the taxiway centerline, the right main gear to folded back, causing the right wing to impacted the taxiway. A postaccident inspection determined that the right main gear upper side link (over-center lock) had not moved fully to its locked position, and that the side-loads generated by the turn to align with the taxiway were transferred to the gear activation system. The transfer of those loads then resulted in the overload failure of the right main gear strut-mounted bellcrank. It could not be determined what caused the right main landing gear activation linkage to be far enough out of adjustment as to result in the upper side link not moving to its fully locked position.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The uncommanded retraction of the right main landing gear during taxi due to the failure of the landing gear extension system to move the right main gear upper side link into the locked position for undetermined reasons.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 9/28/2010 |
| Event Day of the Week | Tuesday |
| Time of Event | 1320 |
| Event Time Zone | Mountain Daylight Time |
| Event City | Great Falls |
| Event State | MONTANA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 59401 |
| Event Date Year | 2010 |
| Event Date Month | 9 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 472858N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1112214W |
| Event Location Airport | Great Falls International |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | KGTF |
| 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 | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Pilot |
| Time of the weather observation | |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | -- |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | -- |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | -- |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| 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) | 27 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 220 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 24 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 34 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | -- |
| 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 | 2 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 28040 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA Operations Center |
| NTSB Notification Date | -- |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Feb 11 2011 1:54PM |
| User who most recently changed record | stam |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N455TB |
| NTSB Number | WPR10LA476 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | VFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | CESSNA |
| Aircraft Model | 310R |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 310R1860 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 5680 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | 1 |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 6 |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | Jul 1 2010 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | 3561 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | C126 |
| Aircraft Owner Name | BAKER GEORGE |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | JUNCTION CITY |
| Aircraft Owner State | OR |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 97448-9441 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | BAKER GEORGE |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | JUNCTION CITY |
| Operator State | OR |
| Operator Country | USA |
| Operator Zip code | 97448-9441 |
| Operator Code | -- |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| 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 | CYQL |
| Departure City | Lethbridge |
| Departure State | -- |
| Departure Country | CA |
| Departure Time | 1220 |
| Departure Time Zone | -- |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | crash at destination city |
| Destination Airport Code | KGTF |
| Destination City | Great Falls |
| Destination State | MT |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Feb 11 2011 1:43PM |
| User who most recently changed record | stam |
| Since inspection or accident | Last Inspection |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 21 |
| Runway Length | 10502 |
| Runway Width | 150 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |