NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA20CA148
Registry · N516DT
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
AERO COMMANDER 500-B
Year of manufacture
1965 · 55 years old at event
Engine
LYCOMING TI0-540 SER (310 hp)
Seats / Engines
7 seats · 2 engines
Last airworthiness date
19651031
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A67816
Registrant of record
CENTRAL AIRLINES INC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to extend the landing gear due to distraction and his delayed go-around, which allowed the airplane to get too low and contact the runway with the landing gear retracted.
Factual narrative
At the conclusion of an uneventful flight, the commercial pilot approached the runway for landing. During the landing flare, the airplane landing gear warning horn activated, so the pilot initiated a go around. While climbing to traffic pattern altitude he noticed that the landing gear handle was in the up position. He did not hear or feel the airplane contact the runway. The pilot subsequently landed and departed without incident; however, after landing at another airport he performed a more thorough post-flight inspection of the airplane. He then noticed that the marker beacon antenna was shaved off and the lower fuselage had sustained substantial damage consistent with ground contact. The pilot reported that, during the descent to final, he began the GUMPS checklist. As he turned on the fuel tanks, he picked up interference on the radios. After fixing the radio situation, he continued the checklist. During the landing flare, he noticed that the "runway sight picture" seemed lower than normal. As he noticed this, he looked at the landing gear indicator, and the landing gear warning horn simultaneously sounded, so he initiated a go-around. While climbing to traffic pattern altitude, he noticed that he had failed to extend the landing gear. He added that he had not heard or felt the airplane contact the runway before the go-around. The pilot subsequently landed without incident and noted no damage during a cursory postflight inspection. He then departed and landed at another airport. Subsequently, he performed a more thorough postflight inspection of the airplane, during which he noticed that the marker beacon antenna was shaved off and that the lower fuselage of the airplane had sustained substantial damage consistent with ground contact. 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).
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Configuration-Not attained/maintained - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2020_ERA20CA148.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 (go-around). 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 2016 · Accident report
Loss of Control on Approach Atlas Air 5Y3591 N7500A
Multiple loss-of-control approach investigations. Series of approach-loss-of-control case studies bundled into one report — examines somatogravic illusion + mode-confusion contributors in turbulent en…
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Accepted Manuscript (Version with final changes)
Go-Around Criteria Refinement for Transport Category Aircraft
Presently, airline pilots are trained to go around if, when lower than 500 ft above the ground, they are outside of a handful of parameters such as airspeed, position, and rate of descent.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper
Validation of Proposed Go-Around Criteria Under Various Environmental Conditions
This paper evaluates the effects of environmental conditions on touchdown performance under varying approach states and validates proposed go-around criteria developed using data from a previously con…
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper
Pilot Evaluation of Proposed Go-Around Criteria for Transport Category Aircraft
The primary objective of this study was to capture pilot feedback and decision-making with regard to proposed, hypothetical, go-around criteria that were developed based on previous research.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper
Development of Possible Go-Around Criteria for Transport Aircraft
This paper adds data to help with the development of possible go-around criteria for transport category aircraft. Presently, airline procedures state that pilots make a go-around decision using multip…
- NASA NTRS 2025 · Conference Paper
A Training Study to Improve Monitoring During A Go-Around
As part of an FAA program to improve go-around (GA) safety, we were asked to determine if we could improve the performance of the Pilot Monitoring (PM) during a GA maneuver.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗