Accident to the Piper PA23 registered N14040 on 26/12/2024 at Saint-Barthelemy AD

The pilot of the PA23, flying in from F. D. Roosevelt airport (Caribbean Netherlands), contacted the AFIS officer at Saint-Barthélemy airport when he was at reporting point COCO in order to join the circuit for runway 28. A pilot of a Britten-Norman BN2 was at this time, on final approach for reciprocal runway 10. After several exchanges, the pilot of the BN2 left the priority for landing to the PA23.

When the PA23 was in the left-hand base leg, the AFIS officer saw continuous smoke escaping from the left-hand engine and informed the pilot of this. The latter continued his approach, concentrated on the situation of the engine and under pressure from the impending landing of the BN2 in the opposite direction.

During the flare, the AFIS officer noticed that the landing gear was not extended and informed the pilot. Given the terrain at Saint-Barthélemy, a go-around on runway 28 was not possible.

The aeroplane touched down with the landing gear retracted, slid along the runway and came to a halt after colliding with the taxiway D sign. The pilot was uninjured.

In a context where the pilots are responsible for ensuring separation with other traffic in the vicinity of an airport which has an AFIS service, the pilot’s desire to land first on a reciprocal runway when another aeroplane was already on final in the opposite direction, generated an accumulation of constraints. These constraints may have led the pilot to rush certain critical actions during the approach phase, to the detriment of fully managing the aircraft's configuration before landing.