N2242NPiper PA-28RT-201 · 1979

On September 23, 2023, about 1045 central daylight time, a Piper PA-28RT-201 airplane, N2242N, sustained substantial damage when it was involved in an accident near Chesterfield, Missouri. The pilot and three passengers were not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight.

According to the pilot, he conducted an uneventful local flight just before the accident flight. During the accident flight, while conducting a visual traffic pattern approach to the runway, the pilot verified three green landing gear extended annunciator lights and proceeded to land the airplane. After a normal touchdown, he felt that the right wing was low and began to correct the attitude when the right wing continued to drop and scrape the runway. The airplane pulled to the right, exited the runway, spun slowly to the right, and came to rest upright. The left main landing gear remained extended; however, the right main and nose landing gear were partially retracted. The outboard right wing sustained substantial damage.

After the airplane was recovered it was placed on jacks to facilitate testing of the landing gear system. Three electric landing gear extension and retraction tests and the manual emergency landing gear extension procedure were completed with no anomalies noted. The airplane’s landing gear are hydraulically operated by an electrically powered reversible pump.

The airplane was equipped with a Garmin G3X flight display that recorded several aircraft parameters, including electrical amperage (amps). The accident flight data was extracted by a mechanic and sent to the National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge. A review of the data showed a sharp increase or spike in amps during the accident flight phases that were consistent with the landing gear retraction and extension. Another sharp increase in amps was noted after touchdown and during the landing roll at about 60 knots groundspeed. The reason for the sharp increase in amps during the landing roll could not be determined.