Accident to the Piper PA30 registered F-GTSV on 16/12/2022 at Vannes

This is a courtesy translation by the BEA of the Final Report on the Safety Investigation. As accurate as the translation may be, the original text in French is the work of reference.

Note: the following information is principally based on the instructor’s and pilot’s statements. This information has not been independently validated by the BEA.

1. History of the flight

As part of the first training flight for the Multi-Engine Piston (MEP) class rating, the pilot and instructor took off at around 11:00. After carrying out several local piloting exercises, they returned to Vannes-Meucon aerodrome to carry out aerodrome circuits with different flap configurations. Runway 04[1] was in use. The first four aerodrome circuits (three touch-and-go landings and one practice go-around) took place normally.

In the downwind leg of the fifth runway circuit, the pilot moved the landing gear control to the "down" position. The green light, which should indicate that the landing gear is down, remained off. The pilot and the instructor extended the downwind leg and checked that the circuit breaker associated with the landing gear was engaged. They tried again, without success, to extend the landing gear.

They informed the AFIS agent that they had a landing gear problem and made a pass in front of the tower. The AFIS agent confirmed that the landing gear was retracted.

The pilot and the instructor left the aerodrome circuit to manually extend the landing gear in accordance with the associated EMERGENCY GEAR EXTENSION procedure. They heard the gravity extension of the landing gear and confirmed that it was locked by means of the green light which was lit. They then returned to the aerodrome circuit. After coordinating with them in the event of a landing problem, the AFIS agent asked the airfield ARFF agent to move to holding point Alpha. At 12:20, the AFIS agent told the pilots that the landing gear appeared to be extended.

At around 12:25, during the landing, when the nose wheel came into contact with the runway, the aeroplane's landing gear collapsed. The aeroplane continued its run on its belly along the runway centreline before veering to the left. The aeroplane came to a halt on the runway about 500 m from threshold 04, after having turned to the right, facing east.

The pilot and instructor exited the aeroplane unharmed.

None of the landing gear struts were torn off and the doors were partly open (see Figure 1). The aircraft had flown eight hours since coming out of its annual maintenance.

2. Additional information

2.1. Persons on board information

2.1.1. Pilot under instruction information

The pilot held a CPL(A) with the IR/SE rating, both obtained in the six months prior to the accident. He had logged around 280 flight hours and his last flight was on 4 November.

2.1.2. Instructor information

The instructor held an ATPL(A) with the following ratings:

• Class/type
  • MEP/SEP (land),
  • IR ME and IR SE,
• Instructor:
  • CRI (ME and SE),
  • FI (CPL(A) and night rating),
  • IRI (ME and SE).

He had logged around 20,500 flight hours, including 30 flight hours in the previous 90 days of which 15 hours 45 minutes on multi-engine aeroplanes.

2.1.3. Statements

The student pilot and the instructor stated that there had been no hard landings during the first aerodrome circuits and that they had not observed any anomaly that could explain the failure of the landing gear extension system.

2.2. Meteorological information

The aerodrome METAR issued at 12:30 gave the following information:

• wind from 050° of 9 kt;
• CAVOK;
• temperature +6°C, dew point temperature +1°C;
• QNH 1016.