Spitfire Gear up @ Scone, 26 March 2026

[KRviator]

In a sad twist less than 48 hours before Warbirds Over Scone, one of the Spitfires has just landed gear-up on Runway 29. Wind at the 29 threshold was ~ 270 @ 11G25 - check out the pool stuff moving about and the windsock 'socking' as Mini-Me refers to it.

No prior warning was given of any problem, the emergency services went past well after the noise stopped.
 

 

[Aviation Photograph]

It was Paul Bennet from Paul Bennet Airshows, he forgot to lower the gear. BIG MISTAKE. Aircraft was owned by Pays Air Service. VH-IXF. Such a shame, huge structural and prop damage, with 20 hours on it after restoration.

[Aviation Photograph]

Thank god he is ok, there was no post impact fire.

[Marty_d]

That's an expensive mistake.

[440032]

Engine didn't even stop! Had to be shut down after the dust settled! (seen elsewhere)

[Student Pilot]

The wooden blades shear off with contact. Col was marshalled into a ditch when he got his first one going and broke off the blades. With a smaller engine breaking wooden blades is a lot better on the crankshaft the hitting with a metal prop, not sure about something like a Merlin.

[onetrack]

According to my info, all Spitfires had undercarriage lowered indicators, early ones were mechanical, later ones used lights. Why didn't this pilot have a checklist for gear down indication? Especially important with such a rare and valuable machine.

[KRviator]

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

According to my info, all Spitfires had undercarriage lowered indicators, early ones were mechanical, later ones used lights. Why didn't this pilot have a checklist for gear down indication? Especially important with such a rare and valuable machine.

If I was a betting man, I'd put a carton of beer on him rushing to beat the approaching storm front after leaving his practice too late...

The KRviatrix and I were talking between ourselves - a "WTF is he still doing up there?!" kind of thing given what we were seeing at ground level - when I said I'm going to go watch him land and we saw him come in and put it down with the gear firmly in the wells, no indication of any problem and certainly no emergency services waiting in anticipation of a gear-up landing.

[Aviation Photograph]

Similar happened back in 2017 when Peter Clements trashed the Corsair at the Hunter Valley Airshow. Again Pete failed to conduct adequate pre landing checks, and verify correct gear extension position.

[danny_galaga]

I will NEVER fly a retractable aircraft. I look at all these really talented and seasoned pilots screwing up, and I just know it'll happen to me.

[kgwilson]

I wonder how often this happened during WW2 not counting times when the landing gear had been damaged. Plots especially during the Battle of Britain often returned with damage to both the aircraft and themselves. The stress on the body and mind must have been extreme at that time. When the system failed and manual gear deployment was required was nicely shown in Christopher Nolans epic movie Dunkirk.

[danny_galaga]

37 minutes ago, kgwilson said:

I wonder how often this happened during WW2 not counting times when the landing gear had been damaged. Plots especially during the Battle of Britain often returned with damage to both the aircraft and themselves. The stress on the body and mind must have been extreme at that time. When the system failed and manual gear deployment was required was nicely shown in Christopher Nolans epic movie Dunkirk.

Fantastic scenes in that movie other than the fact he could have just as easily come down in friendly territory. 

[red750]

1 hour ago, danny_galaga said:

I will NEVER fly a retractable aircraft. I look at all these really talented and seasoned pilots screwing up, and I just know it'll happen to me.

I flew Piper Arrows and Bonanzas, never had a problem.

[danny_galaga]

20 minutes ago, red750 said:

I flew Piper Arrows and Bonanzas, never had a problem.

You are not me 😄

[leslloyd]

A friend and CPL brought his Comanche back in gear up years back,it was fitted with a buzzer warning  to safeguard against such misfortunes.You probably won't believe it but he mistook the buzzer for the stall warning going off on short final.What he'd done was scud run 200 miles back in to base,banked hard to miss a Telecom tower on the way. Stress is the telling thing.Just like Lagaurdia throw a little  unexpected incident into the mix like a quickly developing squall at Scone and you don't really need an investigation.  

[skippydiesel]

Paul Bennet is one highly trained/experienced pilot. This Just shows how unreliable humans can be. Non of us can afford to be complacent or point the finger at the misfortunes of others. If you are religious an apt saying;  "There go I but for the grace of god."

😈

[kgwilson]

16 hours ago, danny_galaga said:

Fantastic scenes in that movie other than the fact he could have just as easily come down in friendly territory. 

The friendly part was covered in soldiers & equipment. The film just showed small parts with lines of men on the beach. There were 400,000 of them & it was chaos. 340,000 were eventually evacuated but 90-100,000 were left behind.

 

There is a video on Youtube of a wheels up landing I think in France videoed by the pilots bulkhead mounted camera. You could hear the wheels up warning screaming and see lights flashing on the panel & both pilot & passenger seemed blissfully unaware of anything. The belly landing on the tarmac was pretty good & they got out and walked around scratching their heads. It seems they had noise cancelling headsets which filtered the noise out.

Edited Saturday at 11:46 PM by kgwilson

[Marty_d]

I'm currently at Scone and just talked to a guy showing his 65 Mustang (car not plane) who lives adjacent the airport.

What he's heard (note this is second hand and unverified) is that there was a strong crosswind, the Spit had to land, and it was a conscious decision to land wheels up rather than run the risk of being blown over and wrecking the aircraft.

As I said this is second hand from a local so may be complete BS. I can't see it myself, but then I don't know the Spits crosswind capabilities.

It's pretty flat land around here so if that was the case, I would have thought it a better option to land into wind in a paddock somewhere, but I don't know the circumstances.

[Marty_d]

Tiger Moth just did a dead stick.

Perfectly handled, even managed to roll it into the taxiway. Very professional.

[onetrack]

Marty, it sounds like the secondhand Spitfire story is complete BS to me. In the link below is the explanation of crosswind limits for the RAF vintage aircraft, and a well-trained pilot is allowed to land in 25kt crosswinds.

 

The part about the Spitfire being "blown over" is suss - the major problem would be, a crosswind outside the limits would just result in a ground loop - which, while dangerous and damaging, isn't the same as flipping an aircraft completely.

 

cross winds | RAF Memorial Flight Club

WWW.MEMORIALFLIGHTCLUB.COM

---

Please what are the cross wind limits for the planes to take off and land, also are there any limits on wind speed at displays Thanks

 

[Marty_d]

Yes OT, as I said it sounded like BS to me too.

I guess the only person who actually knows exactly what happened is the pilot.

[kgwilson]

Depending on the model the empty weight of a Spitfire is between 2.2 & 3 tonnes & with a high wing loading and span of 36 feet 10 inches (11.23 metres) it would take a pretty strong wind to flip it over.

[Thruster88]

7 hours ago, skippydiesel said:

Paul Bennet is one highly trained/experienced pilot. This Just shows how unreliable humans can be. Non of us can afford to be complacent or point the finger at the misfortunes of others. If you are religious an apt saying;  "There go I but for the grace of god."

😈

Totally agree on any gear up landing incident, that could and will happen to anyone. A deliberate decision,  before takeoff, to fly over high terrain in potential IMC conditions as a VFR pilot in a jabiru230 or beechcraft 33 for example is somewhat different situation. 

[facthunter]

I do not accept it could happen to anyone. It's a perfect example of a lack of situational awareness. IF  you make it IMPORTANT you won't miss it. 3 greens before Landing AND a clearance when required. I know OF people who have landed Gear up ( very few) but no pilot I ever knew has Landed gear up and that's 1,000 s. . Nev

[danny_galaga]

3 minutes ago, facthunter said:

I do not accept it could happen to anyone. It's a perfect example of a lack of situational awareness. IF  you make it IMPORTANT you won't miss it. 3 greens before Landing AND a clearance when required. I know OF people who have landed Gear up ( very few) but no pilot I ever knew has Landed gear up and that's 1,000 s. . Nev

Gimme a Beachcraft Bonanza or summink and you'll soon know one 😄