Pilot forgets landing gear, crash-lands at airstrip near Redmond

A Mississippi man who took off in his new Lancair kit plane from a private airstrip west of Redmond on Sunday said he didn’t like the way the aircraft sounded, so he quickly turned back and returned to the runway.

Unfortunately, he forgot to deploy the landing gear, resulting in a crash-landing that damaged the plane but did not injure the pilot, who authorities said was alone in the cockpit.

Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies and a Redmond Fire Department crew was dispatched shortly after noon to the reported non-injury crash at the Cline Falls airstrip, a private runway off 7968 Northwest Eagle Drive, said sheriff’s Sgt. Doug Sullivan.

An investigation found that the pilot, Bernie Breen, 65, of Diamondhead, Mississippi, had taken off at the controls of a new Lancair Legacy, Sullivan said.

The pilot said he didn’t like the way the aircraft sounded shortly after takeoff, so he returned to the runway. But he inadvertently forgot to deploy the landing gear, causing the plane to land on its undercarriage and damaging the propeller, the sergeant said.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were notified of the incident and are investigating, Sullivan said.