N7371R

On April 1, 2024, about 1211 eastern daylight time, a Beech 95B55, N7371R, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near St. Augustine, Florida. The pilot and pilot-rated passenger were not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 test flight.

According to the pilot, he departed Northeast Florida Regional Airport (SGJ), St. Augustine, Florida on a test flight after the airplane had undergone an extensive annual inspection. At approximately 500 ft the pilot initiated a turn toward the west to go to an area where he could proceed with the engine break-in process. At that time, the airplane lost complete electrical power and so he decided to return to SGJ and land. Because they airplane had lost radio communication, the passenger contacted the control tower via mobile phone, and declared an emergency. The pilot and passenger then proceeded to manually lower the landing gear and cranked it until it would not turn any longer. Soon after touchdown the right main landing gear collapsed, and the airplane came to rest on the right side of runway 31.

According to the pilot-rated passenger, who was also a mechanic, he was in the right seat of the airplane to track and record engine data via pictures and video using his mobile phone camera for the first hour of the break-in procedure of the two new engines that had been installed. Shortly after takeoff the landing gear were retracted, and the passenger took a picture of the engine instrumentation, and the pilot turned to the west. About 10 to 15 seconds later the entire instrument panel went black and appeared to lose power, along with their radio equipment, the only indication of anything wrong was that the right alternator inoperative light was on.

After the passenger contacted the air traffic control tower by mobile phone, he noted that the pilot was trying to hand crank the landing gear down, deconflict traffic, and fly the airplane, so the passenger offered to take over hand cranking the landing gear down. He turned the hand crank until he could no longer turn it. The pilot then attempted to turn it more and could not. At this time, they were on an extended downwind and starting to turn base. The passenger again called the air traffic control tower, who cleared them to land, and the passenger asked him if he could tell if their landing gear was down. He said he could see three gear legs but could not tell if they were locked.

The airplane touched down on the main landing gear with the nose landing gear following shortly after. The airplane then rolled out for about 100 feet, and then the right-side main landing gear started to fold. The right wing then came in to contact with the runway, and then started to drag the airplane off to the right. The passenger then reached down and shut off the right and left fuel selectors just before the airplane slid off the right side of the runway, went through a runway sign, and over its concrete pad as the rest of the landing gear folded. The airplane came to rest about 15 to 20 feet beyond that. The passenger then egressed and the pilot followed.

Postaccident examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that the airframe had incurred substantial damage during the accident sequence.

No data was recorded from the avionics system for the accident flight as no SD card was in the designated slot when the airplane was being operated.