This could be a manufacturer design oversight or a fault malfunction. Depending on actuator design a small mico-switch or pressure sensor could lock the gear from retracting once the weight of the aircraft is on the wheels. If your gear is down and locked wouldn't it be a reasonable design that the gear stay locked until the weight is off the gear/tires.Even if the retract lever is moved inadvertently? After re-reading the link,I wonder if the boy did retract the gear or was made a escape goat for the pilots lack of oversight & thewheels up landing?
No idea what a Cochise is so I had to Google it: Turns out to be what the rest of the world knows as a Beech Baron.. http://www.armyav.org/board_t42a.html Got my Mulit Engine Instructor's licence in one of those, good flying airplanes with a good reputation. The father is guilty, he should have put junior in the back seat, but that is Monday Morning Quarterbacking..
I definitely get the feeling the poor kid is indeed the scapegoat... This story smells like a new twist on the old maxim "the first thing every pilot does after making a gear up landing is to put the gearhandle DOWN".
Can't wait till the kid grows up and reads the press release of how dad sold him down the river to cover his own a##. Ray