A 1972-built Beechcraft A100 King Air was flying from Moosonee Airport to Kapuskasing (both in the province of Ontario, Canada) on this day in 2013. The short ~132 nm (245 kilometer) flight was operated by a crew of two, there were no passengers onboard the aircraft.
The aircraft in its final position shortly after the fire in the right-hand engine was extinguished (Source: twitter.com/TimminsToday © Unknown)
After an uneventful flight, the aircraft was approaching Kapuskasing Airport around 18.30 local time for a landing at runway 17. While on short final the crew was communicating with another aircraft approaching the airport. At approximately 18.41 local time the throttles were retarded and the aircraft was flared for touchdown. Instead of the familiar sound of the wheels contacting the runway the fuselage and propellor tips contacted the runway surface. The aircraft slid on its belly to come to a stop, approximately halfway down the length of runway 17-35, partly off the paved runway of the surface. A small fire erupted in the right-hand engine which was quickly extinguished by the alerted firefighters from the Kauskasing Fire Department. A quick check-up by the responding ambulance crew of both pilots revealed there were no injuries.
The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) and Transport Canada were alerted and an investigation was launched. Part of the investigation was an interview with both crew members. This revealed that there had been a breakdown in crew communication between both pilots, possibly caused by the radio traffic with the other aircraft approaching the airport. This resulted in the landing gear not being selected down for landing. The landing gear warning horn was not heard when the throttles were retarded during the final approach.
The aircraft in March 2005 (source jetphotos.com © Luc Brousseau)
There was no damage to the runway or airport equipment, but damage to the aircraft was so significant it was written off as damaged beyond repair.
The aircraft, the crew had been in radio contact with, diverted back to its take-off airport, Timmins (Ontario, Canada), and a second aircraft also had to be diverted, At 20.30 local time the TSB released the aircraft and recovery operations of the aircraft were started. At midnight the airport was reopened. The CADORS (Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System) report is available for the reader's reference by clicking on the .pdf file below;
** Editorial note **
V2 Aviation - Training & Maintenance based this blog on a CADORS (Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System - Canada) report. These reports contain preliminary, unconfirmed data which can be subject to change. Should there be an inconsistency in the blog don't hesitate to get in touch with us. There are two possibilities to do that, via the comments function at the bottom of this page or via the contact page of the website.