N342R – BEECH D35 – 2009-03-16 NTSB Accident Report

On March 16, 2009, a Beech D35 (N342R) was involved in an incident near Taos, NM. All 1 person aboard were uninjured. The aircraft sustained substantial damage.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause of this incident to be: The failure of the student pilot to complete the before landing checklist. Contributing to the accident was his failure to lower the landing gear before landing.

The student pilot was landing at the non-towered airport after a cross country flight. He stated that he initiated a "short approach", did not use any flaps, and kept an approach speed that was about 30 knots faster than normal. The student pilot said that he did not use his normal checklist procedure and that everything seemed to be going "too fast." The airplane landed on the asphalt runway with the landing gear retracted and the skin on the belly of the fuselage was ground down to the main keel. There was no injury to the solo student pilot, but substantial damage to the fuselage structure.

This incident is documented in NTSB report CEN09CA223. AviatorDB cross-references NTSB investigation data with FAA registry records to provide comprehensive safety information for aircraft N342R.