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We can't count the times we've been alerted to breathless cable news anchors waiting as a pilot burns off fuel for a mechanically-induced gear-up landing. And while they're a heart-stopping event for those on board, not to mention the news-starved anchors, they almost always turn out the same way, with a slide along the runway, bent prop(s) and scraped bellies. Well that's how this one in January of 2007 at Charles W. Baker Airport, near Memphis, turned out too but it's from a decidedly different perspective.
According to the information accompanying the video, the pilot was undergoing a check ride and a snowstorm was threatening. "Because of possible ice, we had been flying with the gear down the entire time," the videographer said. "We started doing touch and goes after a while. Habit when you take off is to raise the gear. This is what happened. So, when we come around, they were conversing and what not and simply forgot the gear was up. The prop got bent up pretty bad along with the belly of the plane."
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