NTSB Factual Report

On November 13, 2003, about 1649 Alaska standard time, a Cessna 402 airplane, N402ET, sustained substantial damage during landing with the right main landing gear retracted at Galena, Alaska. The airplane was being operated as a visual flight rules (VFR) positioning flight under Title 14, CFR Part 91, when the accident occurred. The airplane was operated by Arctic Circle Air Service, Fairbanks, Alaska. The airline transport certificated pilot, and the sole passenger/airline employee, were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and a VFR flight plan was filed. The flight originated at the Nulato Airport, Nulato, Alaska, at 1605.

During a telephone conversation with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC), on November 13, the director of operations for the operator reported that the flight departed Nulato and was en route to Galena for fuel as a portion of a positioning flight to Fairbanks. The director of operations said that as the flight approached Galena, the pilot lowered the landing gear, but he did not receive a cockpit indication that the right main landing gear was extended. The pilot performed the emergency gear extension procedures, including the use of the emergency blow-down system, but the right main gear failed to extend. The pilot then landed on runway 25 at Galena with the left main landing gear and nose gear extended, and during the landing roll, shutdown the right engine. As the airplane slowed, the right wing and fuselage contacted the runway surface.

On December 1, 2003, the NTSB IIC inspected the airplane at the operator's maintenance facility in Anchorage, Alaska. The examination revealed scraping/scuffing damage to the underside of the right wing and aileron. The right main landing gear strut was fully compressed. The gear extension and retraction components appeared to be undamaged. The operator's maintenance personnel reported that proposed repairs to the airplane included removal and replacement of the right wingtip, aileron and flap, and patching of fuselage skin.

During a telephone conversation with the NTSB IIC on February 26, 2004, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector from the Flight Standards District Office (FSDO), Fairbanks, Alaska, reported that examination of the right landing gear hydraulic actuator revealed contamination of the internal hydraulic fluid. The inspector reported that the contamination appeared to be water. No other landing gear discrepancies were found. The temperature at Galena at the time of the accident was -2 degrees F. The inspector indicated that the landing gear actuator was probably frozen.

NTSB Probable Cause

Water contamination and freezing of the landing gear actuator that prevented the extension of the right main landing gear, resulting in a gear-up landing. Factors contributing to the accident were freezing temperatures at the accident location, and inadequate maintenance/servicing of the landing gear system by company maintenance personnel.