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ERA21LA312

2021-07-30 · Readington, New Jersey, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport N51

Current FAA registration · N44DB

Make / Model
BEECH K35
Year of manufacture
1959 · 62 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR I0-470 SERIES (260 hp)
Seats / Engines
5 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19590807
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A54891

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The failure of the forward end of the landing gear actuator rod.

Factual narrative

On the base leg of the traffic pattern, the pilot lowered the landing gear and the green landing gear indicator light illuminated. During the subsequent landing, the main gear touched down, and “the nose came down like normal but kept going down with a sudden bang.” The airplane slid off the runway, came to rest in the grass, and sustained substantial damage to the forward lower fuselage. Examination of the airplane revealed that forward end of the landing gear actuator rod was fractured. The failure resulted in insufficient tension to keep the over-center down lock assembly in place. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Landing gear system-Nose/tail landing gear-Failure

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2021_ERA21LA312.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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