Did I forget something?

[David Paleg]

Pilot Forgets to Lower Landing Gear
Jul 15, 3:21 PM (ET)

MIDDLESBORO, Ky. (AP) - A pilot ran through the usual steps of getting ready to land his small plane, except for one little thing - he forgot to lower his landing gear.

Without wheels, Thomas Lepsch's Beechcraft Bonanza skidded a few hundred feet down the runway at Middlesboro/Bell County Airport before coming to a stop Thursday.

"I'd never been at this airport before," Lepsch said. "There's a routine you go through as you prepare for a landing. I was distracted by another plane taking off and simply forgot to lower the landing gear. It was pilot error."

Lepsch, 50, of Kingsport, Tenn., was not hurt, and he said there appeared to be little damage to his small plane, which he has owned since 1985.

He said he didn't have time to panic during his unconventional landing because he was concentrating on controlling the plane and shutting off the fuel supply.

"There was a moment when I saw smoke and sparks when I thought of my four children and thought to myself that I wasn't ready for them to be without a father," he said. "I thought 'I sure hope I don't go up in a ball of fire.'"

Lepsch had been flying over eastern Kentucky "to scout out some good fishing sites."

He said he considered driving, but after a storm front cleared out "it looked like a beautiful day for flying."

[CoolBreeze]

Nothing unusual.. happens all the time. Sometimes even with the warning alarm going off if the aircraft has that feature.

At one of our skydiving drop zones, a few years ago, our pilot (John) had two nice planes. One was a King Air that he was going to lease (with him as pilot) to another drop zone a few states away that weekend. He would fly it and then return Monday. In the meantime, his other pilot stayed at the home Drop zone to fly the second plane for the weekend. Unfortunately, on the second flight of the day he had engine trouble on take off and belly crashed the plane about a half mile straight off the end of the runway. John could not be reached the entire weekend and so had no idea his other plane had crashed. As John was about to land on Monday at his home airport, he looks down to see his other plane sitting in the field. In the process of being both surprised AND looking to see how bad the damage was (as he was still landing)... he forgot to put down the landing gear, and belly flopped the King Air onto the runway.

That's what you call a cluster...

[cgarison]

Plus it happened in Bell Co. KY!