Similar Incident Occurred At Oshkosh A Few Days Earlier

A SubSonex jet made a gear-up landing at Durango-La Plata County Airport in Durango, CO October 29th resulting in damage to the aircraft and forcing airport officials to close a runway while the airplane was cleared.

According to the Durango Herald, the incident occurred about noon, and the runway was re-opened by 1:50 p.m. local time. An American Airlines flight to Phoenix was delayed by about 20 minutes due to the accident.

The airplane, N346RG, is registered to Redge Greenberg (pictured) of Durango. He had built the airplane from an "ultra-quick-build” kit, and flew it for the first time on October 15, according to the report. It was reportedly the first SubSonex completed by a customer. It was not clear if Greenberg was flying the airplane at the time of the incident, and he would not comment to the paper when contacted.

The Durango incident was the second such occurrence in a SubSonex in a little more than a week. On an aviaion discussion forum, Sonex founder and president John Monnett said that he was flying the #2 prototype airplane (pictured) at Oshkosh and he failed to lower the landing gear before touching down. "On the second test flight on the Shark, I was concentrating on an airspeed calibration error during landing and just forgot to lower the gear," he wrote. He said there was very little damage to the belly skin and wing, and the airport crew lifted the plane high enough to get the gear down, and the plane taxiied under its own power back to the Sonex facility at the airport.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.sonexaircraft.com