Birkett7 - -
Pilots know these incidents as "gear up" landings. They are extremely
rare in commercial aircraft because of sophisticated warning equipment
and the presence of two pilots (who can cross-check each other’s
landing checklist).
In light planes with retractable gear they are much more common. Any
of the faster lightplanes will have a retractable gear; the planes
that new pilots train in will not. More explanations in a moment, but
first let me answer your question authoritatively.
The FAA keeps records of significant accidents and incidents and
reports them online:
Federal Aviation Administration
"Preliminary Accident and Incident Data"
http://www1.faa.gov/avr/aai/iirform.htm
This site is searchable and shows 108 “gear up” incidents between July
20, 2000 and today. This database covers only the United States, but
the large majority of civilian aircraft in the world are in use there.
There are some 250,000 civilian aircraft in the U.S., according to
AOPA numbers.
Because of work that the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA)
and pilots associations like Mooney Aircraft Pilots Association
(MAPA), we even know what causes these incidents. Mooneys, which are
the Porsches of light planes, all have retractable gears (with the
exception of a few old models). Regrettably their pilots have gear up
incidents too often, so the MAPA Safety Foundation emphasizes the
continual use of checklists in recurrency training.
The causes are generally attributed to several things:
* a "missed approach" or aborted landing, in which the pilot will go
around - - but forget to redo the landing checklist
* single-pilot operation, where there’s no one cross-checking the
work
* a gear-up warning system that sounds like the stall warning horn
(which a pilot hears every time they land)
For good additional safety information, AOPA has a Safety Foundation
with detailed information. I’d recommend looking at the Nall Report
first:
AOPA Safety Foundation
"Safety Topics"
http://www.aopa.org/asf/safety_topics.html
Now I have to correct a couple of comments:
1. A gear up landing does some body damage, but surprisingly little.
On a propeller plane the sudden stoppage of the prop damages both prop
and engine. That accounts for the bulk of the cost of repair – and
most planes involved in a gear up fly again within about a month.
2. Highroute’s quote is generally heard as: "There are two types of
pilots. Those who’ve had a gear up landing and those who will."
Google search strategy:
Use of FAA/NTSB accident websites.
AOPA + "Safety Foundation"
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA |
Request for Answer Clarification by
birkett7-ga
on
24 Mar 2003 02:41 PST
Thanks for the answer, it was great! Can you please tell me how you
came up with the 108 number as to number of gear up landings since
2000? I'd need that information. Thank you, again!
Amy
|
Clarification of Answer by
omnivorous-ga
on
24 Mar 2003 06:12 PST
Amy --
If you go to this site, you can use the "Search" function on the FAA
page for "gear up". It returns about 150 different references --
including 108 accident accounts in which the landing gear was
retracted:
Federal Aviation Administration
"Preliminary Accident and Incident Data"
http://www1.faa.gov/avr/aai/iirform.htm
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
birkett7-ga
on
24 Mar 2003 10:49 PST
Thanks for your response. Did you gather that number totaling each
incident report or is there a specific reference that points to the
108 figure. THank you!
|
Clarification of Answer by
omnivorous-ga
on
24 Mar 2003 11:59 PST
Amy --
I counted the number of incident reports. Just a reminder: this is
U.S. only.
FAA reporting rules require an accident/incident report for all
significant damage or bodily injury reports, so you can be pretty sure
that just about every gear-up incident gets reported. There can be
other types of gear up incidents, including nose-wheel collapses or
the failure of one gear to extend.
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
birkett7-ga
on
25 Mar 2003 13:10 PST
Thanks you for your consistent answers. Just two more clarifications
and we can close this out! How many total flights were there in that
time period. How many of those 108 were successful? Deadly?
THank you for your help!
|
Clarification of Answer by
omnivorous-ga
on
25 Mar 2003 15:13 PST
>How many total flights were there in that
>time period. How many of those 108 were successful?
Amy --
I'm not sure exactly what you're asking now. The annual estimates
of flights has about 61 million takeoffs and landings, according to
the Aircraft Owner and Pilots Association, 12.6 million in commercial
carriers and 48.7 million in private aircraft:
http://www.aopa.org/special/newsroom/stats/activity.html
Would you like to me to see how many of the 108 incidents in the FAA
database since July, 2000 had injuries (if any) or would you like to
check the database yourself?
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
birkett7-ga
on
26 Mar 2003 05:18 PST
Good morning,
If you could check the database for the number of incidents with
injuries, fatalaties, that sort of thing, that would be awesome.
THank you so much!
|
Clarification of Answer by
omnivorous-ga
on
26 Mar 2003 06:50 PST
Amy --
It's going to take a little bit of time -- perhaps 30-60 minutes to
search through all 108 incident reports. Here's how you can do it:
1. Go to the FAA accident report page:
Federal Aviation Administration
"Preliminary Accident and Incident Data"
http://www1.faa.gov/avr/aai/iirform.htm
Use the Search facility on the FAA page (not your browser or Google).
Enter the term "gear up" and you'll get all of the web pages with
information on landing gear incidents.
The ones with N numbers are accident reports; at the top of the report
it will indicate whether there were injuries or not.
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA
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