PA23 pilot reported the landing gear collapsed on landing even though he saw three green lights on t...

Attributes
ACN	1103659
Time
Date	201307
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	RNO.Tower
State Reference	NV
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Piper Single Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Landing Gear
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Commercial
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 138 Flight Crew Total 2713 Flight Crew Type 452
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft

Narrative:

I started my descent into [descent] as normal. Once; I established communication with tower; they advised me to take the right downwind for 34R. I had already had my flaps deployed while trying to get established from my descent and into the traffic pattern. Everything was going as a normal controlled landing should be. I looked down to confirm that I had 3 green; it appeared as I did. I continued on with the approach; tower then cleared me for [a different runway] instead. I came onto final; everything was looking perfect. Once I touched down on the runway; the wheels hit the ground soft and felt like a normal landing. I slowly eased the nose down as I was still in the process of the landing phase. As soon as I did it felt like the wheels collapsed and the props started to hit the ground. As soon as I heard the props hit I killed both engines. Looking at the aircraft on the runway; my opinion there was limited [damage] to include: ground damage; nose landing gear; minor damage to step; and as such does not rise to substantial damage per far. Once the aircraft was towed to the FBO; and runway was cleared I called tower and asked if there was anything [they noticed] with the landing gear. They stated that they looked and verified by binoculars that is was indeed down.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA23 pilot reported the landing gear collapsed on landing even though he saw three green lights on the approach.

Narrative: I started my descent into [descent] as normal. Once; I established communication with Tower; they advised me to take the right downwind for 34R. I had already had my flaps deployed while trying to get established from my descent and into the traffic pattern. Everything was going as a normal controlled landing should be. I Looked down to confirm that I had 3 green; it appeared as I did. I continued on with the approach; Tower then cleared me for [a different runway] instead. I came onto final; everything was looking perfect. Once I touched down on the runway; the wheels hit the ground soft and felt like a normal landing. I slowly eased the nose down as I was still in the process of the landing phase. As soon as I did it felt like the wheels collapsed and the props started to hit the ground. As soon as I heard the props hit I killed both engines. Looking at the aircraft on the runway; my opinion there was limited [damage] to include: ground damage; nose landing gear; minor damage to step; and as such does not rise to substantial damage per FAR. Once the aircraft was towed to the FBO; and runway was cleared I called Tower and asked if there was anything [they noticed] with the landing gear. They stated that they looked and verified by binoculars that is was indeed down.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.