Yet Another Reason That ANN LOVES Its News-Spies!

ANN Reader John W. Meneely was kind enough to send us these pix of what appears to be a textbook gear-up landing at California's Deer Valley Airport.

John tells us that the pix are part of "a sequence of four photos I took at Deer Valley, AZ (DVT) last Saturday, December 24, 2005. The aircraft in question is a Piper PA-31-350 Navajo (N494SC), which circled the airport for about an hour while the pilot attempted to get all 3 wheels down. However, the left main gear would not cooperate and the pilot opted to perform a wheels-up landing on runway 07L. As you can see, the landing was perfect and the pilot was unscathed by his ordeal. There were no other people on board."

One rarely gets to see these things so well-executed and so well documented... so we thank John for allowing us to share these pix with y'all. We do hope that the pilot involved took a bow after he exited the aircraft... it look she deserves to do so...

Note: Photos copyright John W. Meneely 2005, and may not be published elsewhere without written permission.

** Report created 12/27/2005 Record 3 **
IDENTIFICATION
 Regis#: 494SC Make/Model: PA31 Description: PA-31/31P Navajo, Navajo Chieftain, Chie
 Date: 12/24/2005 Time: 1913
 Event Type: Incident Highest Injury: None Mid Air: N Missing: N
 Damage: Minor
LOCATION
 City: PHOENIX State: AZ Country: US

DESCRIPTION
ACFT LANDED GEAR UP, DEER VALLEY, PHOENIX, AZ

INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
 # Crew: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
 # Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
 # Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
WEATHER: NOT REPORTED
OTHER DATA
 Departed: Dep Date: Dep. Time:
 Destination: Flt Plan: Wx Briefing:
 Last Radio Cont:  Last Clearance:
 FAA FSDO: SCOTTSDALE, AZ (WP07) Entry date: 12/27/2005

FMI: www.ntsb.gov