[427TJ]

I used to be an instructor pilot in the USAF back in the mid-90s. One day at Kelly AFB I was in the traffic pattern with two students letting them practice touch-and-go landings. A C-5 Galaxy transport was on final approach about a mile out from landing and I noticed that the C-5's gear was still up. We were on downwind getting ready to roll-in for a low-approach behind the C-5 and we had a front-row seat to what might have happened. I told my students that we were about to watch a C-5 do a belly-landing! I had to say something so I keyed the mic and calmly said, "Your gear's up" on Tower frequency. Man, those guys hit the throttles and went around like a shot! Just after I had said "Your gear's up" the Tower controller sent the C-5 around. That was a great learning experience for my students: Don't silence the gear horn! Most retractable-gear airplanes have a warning horn that sounds when the pilot goes to idle power with flaps extended and the wheels aren't down (the airplane thinks you want to land so it tells you that the wheels aren't down by sounding the warning horn). If you silence the gear warning horn and don't touch the throttles or lower the gear you might belly it in. That's probably what the C-5 guys had done and might explain the B-1 mishap. I wonder what the whole story is behind the B-1 incident?