Pilot Debrief

LOOFBOURROW JOHN W RUTAN DEFIANT near Morristown, NJ — 2016-11-16

Final reportERA17LA054
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Date
2016-11-16
Location
Morristown, NJ, USA
Airport
MMU
Aircraft
LOOFBOURROW JOHN W RUTAN DEFIANT
Registration
N770JL
Category
Airplane
Highest injury
None
Fatalities
0
Phase of flight
Landing

Probable cause

A collapse of the nose landing gear due to wear in the landing gear extension system.

NTSB narrative

The experimental amateur-built airplane was landing after an uneventful personal flight. While landing on a runway, the retractable nose landing gear collapsed, the rudder that was mounted on the bottom of the fuselage contacted the runway pavement, substantially damaging it. Postaccident examination of the nose landing gear system revealed that the bottom of the down lock was worn (beveled). When the nose wheel landing gear was extended, the bottom of the down lock, which hooked over a pivot shaft to lock the landing gear down, contacted the pivot shaft around the area of the centerline and did not extend past the centerline of the pivot shaft. Drawings of the assembly’s normal functions indicated that the down lock could move and unlock the landing gear when the assembly was under load. At the time of the accident, the airplane had accumulated about 1,338 landings. Given this information, it is likely that the wear to the nose landing gear down lock allowed the nose landing gear to collapse during the landing.

Analysis

Primary failure mode
Mechanical failure
First missed decision gate
Maintenance could have addressed the worn down lock before the flight.

NTSB coding

Evidence available

  • Photos
  • 5 docket documents
View NTSB final reportView NTSB docket

Docket documents5

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