NTSB CAROL · Event
Event CEN25LA185
Registry · N3239Q
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
CESSNA 401
Year of manufacture
1967 · 58 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR IO 520 SERIES (285 hp)
Seats / Engines
8 seats · 2 engines
Last airworthiness date
19670308
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A37D17
Registrant of record
92ND WEST AVIATION INC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The failure of the left landing gear system and subsequent intentional gear up landing.
Factual narrative
According to the pilot, the airplane had undergone extensive maintenance and an annual inspection before being flown for the first time in about 25 years. During the third traffic pattern, the “left landing gear broke and necessitated a gear up landing.” The pilot landed the airplane with the landing gear retracted which resulted in substantial damage to the lower fuselage. According to the pilot, the left landing gear strut over extended and jammed itself into the wheel well. Additionally, he reported that the left main landing gear bell crank was fractured which appeared to have possibly been damaged during a previous gear-up landing in 1998. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- — Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Landing gear system-Main landing gear-Failure
- — Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Landing gear system-Main gear strut/axle/truck-Failure
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2025_CEN25LA185.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2023 · Accident report
In-Flight Separation of Wings Involving Cessna 401 Pilot Owner
In-flight breakup of a Cessna 401 over Decatur, GA, July 2018. The NTSB determined that fatigue cracking in the lower spar cap propagated to critical length undetected through the inspection program.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA)
From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- Semantic Scholar 2025 · Article (Applied Sciences)
Decision-Making Framework for Aviation Safety in Predictive Maintenance Strategies
The implementation of predictive maintenance (PM) in aviation presents unique challenges due to strict safety requirements, complex operational environments, and regulatory constraints.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
Low-Resource Automatic Speech Recognition Domain Adaptation – A Case-Study in Aviation Maintenance
With timeliness and efficiency being critical in the aviation maintenance industry, the need has been growing for smart technological solutions that optimize and streamline the different underlying ta…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
A New Trajectory in UAV Safety: Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for Distance Maintenance Under Wind Variations
In the field of aviation, safety is a critical cornerstone, and the operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems is deeply connected with this principle.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (IJAAA)
Just Culture in Aviation: A Metaphorical Study on Aircraft Maintenance Students
Just Culture, a sub-dimension of safety culture, has been a prominent and debated topic in aviation safety in recent years.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗