Small Plane Skids In Gearless at Fitchburg Airport, Third Landing Mishap Since 2025

A small plane touched down hard at Fitchburg Municipal Airport without its landing gear extended, marking the latest in a string of landing mishaps at the North Central Massachusetts airfield. The aircraft made what was described as a hard landing after it became clear the gear had not deployed.

The incident, first reported by CBS News Boston, adds to a growing list of landing-related accidents at the airfield, located at 567 Crawford Street. Fitchburg Municipal Airport, known by its identifier KFIT, sits on 376 acres and operates a single 5,001-foot paved runway that was extended in 2020 to handle small business jets and regional corporate traffic, according to the City of Fitchburg.

A Runway With a Recent History of Trouble

This is not the first time the Crawford Street runway has seen a landing go wrong. In May, a Cessna R182 Skylane RG suffered a hard landing at the airport when its nose landing gear collapsed during touchdown, causing substantial fuselage damage; the NTSB attributed the collapse to pilot flare error, noting the pilot had already completed two successful landings before the failure on a third attempt.

A year before that, in August 2025, a single-engine Cessna 170 flipped onto its roof along the same runway when the wind shifted suddenly from a headwind to a crosswind. The pilot, who had been arriving from nearby Sterling Airport to buy fuel, was injured, and the airfield temporarily closed as a result.

Fitchburg's runway troubles have also sent aircraft elsewhere. In January 2025, a plane experiencing landing gear failure diverted from Fitchburg to nearby Orange Municipal Airport, where it executed a successful emergency belly landing on grass with no injuries or fuel leaks, according to WHDH 7News. Emergency crews had staged along the runway there ahead of the touchdown.

What Federal Rules Say About Gearless Landings

Federal Aviation Administration Order 2150.3C treats a wheels-up landing as an independent violation of 14 CFR 91.13, the regulation covering careless or reckless operation, unless the flight was conducted by a sole owner-operator flying without passengers. That means regulatory scrutiny can follow even when a mechanical failure, rather than pilot error, is found to be the root cause.

It remains unclear whether Wednesday's landing at Fitchburg stemmed from a mechanical failure of the landing gear or another cause, and whether the FAA will pursue any enforcement action. The extent of damage to the aircraft and to the runway surface has also not been detailed.

Landing Remains Aviation's Riskiest Phase

The Fitchburg incidents fit into a broader national pattern. FAA data compiled for 2026 shows landing is the single highest-risk phase of flight, accounting for 332 of nearly 1,000 analyzed general aviation accidents, far more than accidents occurring en route or during takeoff.

Landing gear-related mishaps happen roughly three times a week across the country, according to industry safety analyses from P2 Aviation Technology, with typical single-engine airframe, propeller, and engine repairs running past $60,000 per event. Many minor belly landings never make it into formal NTSB accident classifications if no severe injuries occur, the analysis notes.

An Airfield With Nearly a Century of Air Traffic

Fitchburg Municipal Airport has been a fixture of the region's aviation scene since it was established in 1928 and officially opened in June 1929, when Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission Director Crocker Snow completed its inaugural landing. The airport now serves more than 50 corporate and private aircraft across North Central Massachusetts, according to the City of Fitchburg.

The airport has also been the site of stranger landing mishaps over the decades. In August 1975, a landing Cessna 150 carrying an instructor and student touched down directly on top of another landing Cessna 150 in a rare piggyback accident, with no injuries reported; the aircraft on the bottom safely taxied both locked planes to a stop, according to New England Aviation History.

Beyond runway incidents, the Fitchburg Airport Commission has been investing in broader safety upgrades. In September 2025, the commission accepted a $2,045,000 FAA grant to fund four phases of perimeter wildlife fencing around the airport grounds, with construction scheduled to maintain full airport security throughout installation.