Forum: Mishaps

Report: pilot error caused B-1B crash

by Air Combat Command Public Affairs

9/18/2006 - LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (ACCNS) -- Pilot error caused a B-1B aircraft to crash while landing on the runway at a forward deployed location May 8, 2006, according to an aircraft accident investigation report released today.

The copilot suffered a minor back injury and the other three crew members were not injured. Damage totaled approximately $7.9 million for the aircraft and the damage to the runway totaled approximately $14,025.

The aircraft is assigned to the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Wing, Dyess AFB, Texas.

Investigators concluded that the cause of the mishap was both pilots' failure to lower the landing gear during the aircraft's approach and landing. Contributing factors for the pilots' failure to lower the landing gear were the copilot's task oversaturation; the copilot's urgency to complete a long mission; both pilots' inattention to instrument readings and the Descent/Before Landing Checklist, and the copilot's false belief that the pilot had lowered the landing gear.

According to the report, the pilot unexpectedly turned over aircraft control to the copilot on the final approach. The pilot reported to the air traffic control tower that the landing gear was down despite the fact that the Descent/Before Landing Checklist was never completed and the landing gear was never lowered. The red warning light in the gear handle, indicating all landing gear was not down and locked, was illuminated for more than four minutes during the approach. Additionally, at the time the aircraft landed, the three green position lights, which illuminate after the landing gear has locked in the down position, were not illuminated.

For more information, contact the Air Combat Command Public Affairs office at (757) 764-5014 or e-mail acc.pam@langley.af.mil.

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It's amazing, how many gear up landings are made despite the number of lights and bells designers put in to warn the crew that the gear is not down.

I'm willing to bet you that he put the gear handle down AFTER they planted it. Laughing

D@mn, of all planes, the BONE is a pretty expensive one to Foxtrot up in what was a very avoidable mishap. Task saturation or not, it all comes back to attention to detail and good cockpit communication. My Two Cents

To Err is Human. To Forgive is NOT ACC Policy.

TC wrote:

I'm willing to bet you that he put the gear handle down AFTER they planted it. Laughing

LOL!

Wouldn't that standard procedure though?

Laughing

Hey, even Snort has been known to miss that step Wink

. Sorry to hear that the plane's bent and the pilot's prolly gonna be hip deep in manure for a while, but I'm glad nobody was seriously hurt and the aircraft will be repaired.

I just can't imagine the aweful feeling of the aircraft scraping down the runway. Hey, I accidentally backed someone's Range Rover into a fire sprinkler and knocked it off the pipe while working as a valet, but a BONE Shocked

!!!

And to add insult to injury, the crew would have to use the overhead emergency escape hatches to deplane - as the normal exit is just aft of the nose gear (which would have been laying flat on the ground...)

Mike

Well, this would certainly qualify as an emergency!

Do those hatches have a manual release or do they only go by pyros like when the ejection seats fire?

Roscoe wrote:

It's amazing, how many gear up landings are made despite the number of lights and bells designers put in to warn the crew that the gear is not down.

We had a pilot declare an emergency shortly after takeoff from an "undisclosed location" saying his landing gear wouldn't retract, this was only after his wingman told him that his gear was still down.

They impounded that plane and we spent 16 hours cycling the landing gear, never found a problem....

One of the things I had to do when the the plane was impounded was to do a memory dump of the FLCC. That clearly showed he never tried to raise the gear.

After two days the pilot finally changed his story and said he couldn't be 100% certain if he raised the gear handle or not..........

Not a bad ending, he bought the beer for everybody that had to work on it.

Tom (Meathook), were you still around for this one??