Amphib float plane landed in Kezar Lake w/wheels down on amphib floats. Flips, sinks...1 dead, 4 injured but survived.

what part of "wheels up after takeoff" was not understood.... or...

how about a short landing checklist??

or that amphib decal on the dash " wheels up when water landing"....

Makes one wonder what type of distractions in the plane kept the pilot preoccupied?

Personally I tell folks that keep quite until we reach cruise, and out of any congestion. When decent starts silence again until shut down. However I do ask if they see another plane to say so.

It took a couple of times for my son to understand the SWA 737 at 37K was not an issue. However he was about 5 at the time and was excited to be of some help. Now he's 14, and wants to do the flying himself. Which he does pretty well. Rock solid on holding altitude and heading. Always goes "Here you take it" When we get down wind. Be nice to have a CFI at BNO.

Fly smart, Bub

My seaplane instructor said we should ALWAYS use a GUMP check on final when flying amphips:

G=Gear, are the wheels up?
U=Undercarriage, are they REALLY up?
M=Make sure the gear is up!!
P=Positive the wheels are up??

Sorry to hear about the incident and I hope all the other folks recover. Landing wheels down is a guaranteed bath, at least, and sometimes worse...

It is very sad and truly amazing what the human mind can and can not do at times. I had a friend run a very nice straight float plane into the beach/woods while landing downwind and across the narrow part of a lake.

One basic lesson for all, land into the wind and use all the "runway" or at least keep your options many. This guy would have probably hit the shore even if he had landed into the wind due to the narrowness of the lake and trees on both sides. If he had used the long part of the lake, there would have been no incident. Lucky nobody was hurt. Ford

google SLOJ
some years ago the Govt. spent a lot of money researching why an experienced pilot that performs the same or similiar functions continously does something really stupid without any apparent reason, such as stress or fatigue, etc. After spending quite a lot of money, all they could come up with is that silly anacronym.
Apparently even the best of us are not immune to SLOJ.
Some institutions, like the Army try to mitigate SLOJ by always having two pilots on board.
Another defense is standardization, ex. always read and follow the checklist

I recently saw an article about this topic in a National Geographic Adventure (or was it Backpacker...?)

One of the examples was professional/champion/record holder rock climber Lynn Hill who suffered an accident when she didn't completely tie into the rope. She climbed up 80 feet, then relaxed on the rope and fell the entire height to the ground, saved only by tree limbs close to the rock face.

She began preparing for the climb by tying her figure-8 knot, which she had done thousands of times before, an act that requires virtually zero conscious effort for her, then for some strange reason paused in the middle of that to tie her rock shoes, but did not complete tying the rope knot.

One theory is that by repetition and complacency, the act of tying the 2 knots was merged into one, and by having such a routine, these critical steps were deemphasized.

I think the use of checklists or mnemonic acronyms is key to forcing yourself to consciously identify and confirm acts that can normally become second nature and unconscious.

These things do happen, if somebody retires after flying for 40 years without doing something stupid then maybe he might be able to comment on why these things happen. Any takers?

I think if you find someone that has flown for forty years and says' that they have never done anything stupid, you have found a victim of memory loss. I think we all are victims of random acts of stupidity. We usually get away with them though. Ever taken off on one mag, or not set the DG or not set the altimeter? Made you feel stupid huh.
Supposedly the first step in dealing with a problem is admitting you have one. OK, I admit it I'm stupid. It's why I write everything down. It's no secret that I'm stupid either. The controller knows it, that's why he makes me repeat the IFR clearance.

Since everybody is admitting to being stupid, I will say that I am not stupid, but am human. It seems to me that one mistake is usually not enough to cause an accident, it usually takes more than one. Now, running out of fuel may be an example of one mistake that will get you, but I think you can get my drift. Also not being in a hurry is a trait that may lead to cautious decisions, think thru what you are trying to do and try not to just wing it.

Finally, be in your own bed before midnight, bad things can happen after that, especially on weekends!! Look at poor Miss Lohan. Ford

In the pictures i saw on the news,3 wheels were up.The right front wheel was not retracted.Dan Dufault the southern maine flying warden confirmed this as well.I wonder if his lights were indicating all locked and up?

Ford,
I agree, accidents are almost always a "chain" of events that lead to the accident, break one link and no accident happens. If you study accidents, you will be surprised at how hard some of them are to happen, like maybe a loose fuel cap that siphoned out some fuel and a higher than normal fuel burn due to excess weight and a head wind led you to run out of gas. Without all three, you wouldn't have run out. Or forgetting to set the DG usually won't hurt anything, but if it's IFR and a mountain is out there, well you get the idea.

Forrest Gump's mother wrote:Stoopid is as stoopid does.

I'm not stupid either, but I've sure done some boneheaded things with an airplane. But only once, each time.

once&futr_alaskaflyer wrote:

Forrest Gump's mother wrote:Stoopid is as stoopid does.

Yup... That's what Mom always told me. Like A64 says, it's usually a chain of events that starts snowballing that'll get you. Any item by itself isn't a big deal, but all combined... You're hosed.

Gump

Besides the gear/up/down locked lights....is it possible to do a visual check on the amphib gear? I don't recall that you can......so I guess you can only go on what the lights are telling you.....????

There are also mirrors flor amphibs.We got em on the 185 just inboard of the wing struts.I will show you saturday,at the flyin.