Accident to the Piper PA46 registered SP-AMP on 27/07/24 at Poitiers Biard
Landing with retracted trains
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 pilot’s statement. This information has not been independently validated by the BEA.
1. HISTORY OF THE FLIGHT
The pilot, accompanied by his family, was carrying out a cross-country flight from Lisbonne Cascais-Tejo airport (Portugal) bound for Pasewalk airport (Germany). He had planned to stop at Poitiers-Biard airport in order to refuel and rest. The flight, carried out under IFR in VMC conditions, proceeded normally. On the approach to Poitiers, the pilot had planned to carry out a RNP approach for runway 21 but the controller proposed a RNP approach for runway 03. This would allow him to carry out a direct approach. The pilot accepted. On final, he adjusted the aeroplane’s trims, configured the flaps for landing (20°), reduced power and then landed with the landing gear retracted.
2. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Pilot’s statement
The 34-year-old pilot held an aeroplane private pilot license. He had been the owner of SP-AMP since 2021. He had logged 300 flight hours in total including 130 hours on this aeroplane. He had carried out 5 flight hours in the previous month and 15 flight hours in the previous 3 months, all on this same aeroplane. The pilot had a medical restriction (VCL) which meant that he could not fly at night: he suffers from dyschromatopsia (commonly known as colour blindness). More specifically, the pilot suffers from deuteranomaly: he cannot see the strongest shades of green and red. The perception of the contrast between these colours is reduced.
Figure 1: comparison of colour vision according to the dyschromatopsia
The pilot indicated that the flight had proceeded without difficulty and that he had not felt any particular stress. According to him, the weather conditions had not presented any particular difficulties for piloting. However, the pilot mentioned that the sun was at its zenith and was very bright. In the past, he had already been confronted with reflection problems which prevented him from seeing all of the EFIS screens during the flight.
Furthermore, he specified that on final, when he was carrying out all the actions to configure the aeroplane in preparation for the landing, the passenger in the RH seat stopped him to ask a question. According to the pilot, he forgot to extend the landing gear.
The pilot added that when starting up the aeroplane, before requesting the departure clearance from the controller, he had observed the error message “DB MISMATCH – Aviation database version mismatch. Xtalk is off” on the EFIS screens. He tried to synchronise the PFD and MFD three times on the apron, in order to update the charts. He was successful in this the third time.
During the landing, he did not perceive any aural or visual warning. He indicated that a message already present in cruise was displayed on the MFD. On making out this message displayed in white, he thought that it was secondary information and did not pay any particular attention to it .
Landing gear extension warnings on the PA46-350P
On the PA46-350P, the non-extension of the landing gear is likely to activate an in-flight warning if the throttle is reduced to below 14” or if the flaps are extended more than 10°. This warning is visual and aural.
On the PA-46 equipped with a conventional avionics system, the “GEAR WARNING” light on the warning panel lights up and a horn sounds simultaneously.
On more recent PA46s, such as SP-AMP built in 2016, the G1000 system is fitted as standard. There is no warning panel on these models. The instrument panel is made up of screens. To be able to pilot with this equipment, EFIS training is required.
The G1000 system incorporates the same landing gear not extended detection logic. On the screen displaying the PFD, a “CHECK GEAR” message appears. The message is displayed in amber (“Caution”) above 400 ft AGL and in red (“Warning”) below.
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Figure 2: amber caution and red warning messages concerning non-extension of landing gear
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Figure 3: position of warning messages on G1000
A “CHECK GEAR” voice message is also generated in both landing gear not extended situations.
The “CHECK GEAR” caution, generated by a low power setting, can be deactivated by pressing the associated function key.
Perception of warnings
The colours of the parameters displayed on the EFIS screens are generally high-contrast, to make the information stand out more. In particular, amber and red are the colours associated with an abnormal situation and an emergency situation respectively, the latter requiring immediate action.
The pilot, who suffers from dyschromatopsia, held a class 2 medical certificate, which excluded night flight, but not daytime flight under IFR with a glass cockpit. In the context of this accident, the BEA did not investigate whether and how the use of EFIS screens for IFR flights had been taken into account during the examination leading to the issue of the pilot's medical fitness certificate.
The BEA did not carry out any tests to verify the operation of the visual and aural landing gear not extended warnings on SP-AMP.
December 2024