NTSB Factual Report

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On May 16, 2015, at 1548, Pacific daylight time, a Beech King Air B200, N505SP, was substantially damaged when the airplane landed with the landing gear retracted at Mc Clellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ), Carlsbad, California. The airplane was registered to and operated by the commercial pilot under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. The pilot was not injured. The cross-country personal flight departed Palm Springs (PSP), California, about 1515 with a planned destination of Santa Ana, California. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed.

The pilot reported that 10 minutes into the flight, he received an instrument flight rules flight plan from air traffic control (ATC). The cloud tops were at 8,500 feet and he was cleared to 6,000 ft, which put him in the clouds.

Within minutes of entering the clouds, the airplane lost all electrical power, and the pilot lost contact with ATC. He climbed back out of the clouds and proceeded to the west; he found a hole in the clouds over the Pacific Ocean, descended, and turned southbound. He said partial electrical power was restored, and he tried to advise ATC of his problems. His transmissions were not understood, but he flew to CRQ, and received a green light from the tower personnel. He extended the landing gear and flaps but had no airspeed indicator. When the airplane touched down, the pilot realized that his landing gear had not extended.

Witnesses reported that the airplane approached the runway and was faster than a normal landing, and the gear was still retracted.

The pilot reported during an initial telephone interview with the National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge, that after the loss of electrical power he did not perform any emergency procedures as the checklist was in a cabinet and not reachable; he was just trying to fly the airplane. The pilot stated that when he departed from PSP, the generators were on. When asked if he attempted to reset the generators, he again stated that he did not do any emergency procedures except to fly the airplane. In a later interview, the pilot stated that he may have accidently turned on the starter switches, which would have turned off the generators and accounted for the loss of electrical power.

A mechanic was dispatched to help defuel the airplane about 30 minutes after the accident. He reported that fuel was leaking from the right wing so he disconnected the battery. He opened an access panel but was unable to mechanically turn off the fuel selector valve (FSV). He reconnected the battery and went into the cockpit. He saw that the landing gear handle was in the down position, and the flap handle was in the full up position. The battery switch was in the OFF position with the battery gang bar down, which turned off the battery, generator 1, and generator 2. After lifting up the gang bar and turning on the battery switch, he saw nothing on the cockpit displays but heard the airplane power up. He located the FSV, turned it off, and confirmed with a firefighter that the solenoid in the wing audibly closed. The mechanic turned the electrical power off and disconnected the battery. The fuel leak from the right engine filter bowl stopped.

It took the mechanic about 30 minutes to gather the equipment needed to defuel the airplane, and he decided to start with the right side by connecting to the engine supply line. He reconnected the battery and entered the cockpit to turn on the electrical power. With power on, the cockpit displays illuminated, and he heard the landing gear try to operate to the down position. After another mechanic pulled the circuit breaker for the avionics, he defueled the airplane.

During recovery, the airplane was lifted off the ground, and the landing gear were successfully extended to the down and locked position.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The pilot checklist emergency procedures for a dual generator failure identifies the first step to reset the generators, then on.

If the generators do not reset, the checklist identifies for landing, to extend the landing gear manually.

NTSB Probable Cause

The pilot’s inadvertently turning on the starter switches, which turned off the generators and resulted in a loss of electrical power and gear-up landing. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to follow the emergency procedures for a loss of electrical power or to manually extend the landing gear.