N93715

On March 24, 2015, a Bellanca 17 31A (N93715) was involved in an incident near Siler City, NC. All 1 person aboard were uninjured. The aircraft was destroyed.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause of this incident to be: The pilot's failure to ensure that the airplane's landing gear was down and locked prior to touchdown.

During a ferry flight, while turning from downwind leg to base leg of the airport traffic pattern, the pilot became distracted when the cabin door popped open. The pilot continued on the approach and prior to touchdown, advanced the propeller rpm, set the mixture to full rich, and put the flaps down. As he reduced the throttle he heard a horn and thought it was the stall warning horn, but afterwards believed it probably was the gear warning horn, as they sounded somewhat similar. He did not think anything about it as he normally hears the stall horn at touchdown. He stated that he felt like the approach was a little faster than normal and he reduced the power to help to try to slow down. At touchdown he realized that he had not selected gear down.

This incident is documented in NTSB report ERA15CA169. AviatorDB cross-references NTSB investigation data with FAA registry records to provide comprehensive safety information for aircraft N93715.