N409STCessna 550 · 1987

The captain reported that the airplane was on a stabilized approach when, just before the airplane touched down, he heard a horn activate. He did not realize that the landing gear was not fully down until the nose landing gear touched down and he heard metal grinding. The airplane veered off the right side of the runway and came to rest about 20 ft from the edge. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the bottom of the fuselage. The captain’s recollection of the landing gear selection was “fuzzy” following the accident.

A postaccident functional test of the landing gear system showed normal extension and retraction. No other preaccident failures or malfunctions were noted with the airplane or systems that would have precluded normal operations. The lack of anomalies indicated that the flight crew failed to ensure the landing gear was down before landing.