gear up landing: "There are those who have, and..."

" wrote:


I've seen gear-ups performed by retractable newbies
and 10,000+ hr. pilots. A combination of distractions at the right
time can sink the best of them. When I based at PHX, I once watched a
commercial 737 come down short final with the gear up. They were
coming back around for the second time after going around for traffic
on the runway. While on the go around, they reported a problem with an
engine indicator. It distracted them enough that they missed putting
the gear down. Fortunately, the tower caught it and let them know and
they went around again.

John Deakin wrote a good article on this subject on Avweb, about
almost landing a 747 gear up.
http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/188536-1.html
I also read an investigation report about someone almost doing it in a
Learjet on a check flight. They went around when they felt the VHF
antenna drag on the runway!
http://www.atsb.gov.au/aviation/occu...ail.cfm?ID=220
The PIC (the instructor) is listed as having 17000 hours, 3000 on
type.