Pilot Debrief

PIPER PA-28-161 near Meriden, CT — 2011-04-22

Final reportERA11LA264
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Date
2011-04-22
Location
Meriden, CT, USA
Airport
MMK
Aircraft
PIPER PA-28-161
Registration
N2838D
Category
Airplane
Highest injury
None
Fatalities
0
Phase of flight
Landing

Probable cause

Maintenance personnel's inadequate inspection of the main landing gear, which resulted in a failure of the right main landing gear’s inboard torque link lug due to a fatigue fracture. Contributing to the accident was owner's lack of compliance with a factory service bulletin addressing landing gear inspections.

NTSB narrative

The student pilot entered the left downwind leg of the traffic pattern at the airport. While on the final leg of the traffic pattern, the airplane encountered vertical wind shear and landed hard on the runway. After the impact, the right main landing gear of the airplane collapsed, and the pilot taxied off the right side of the runway, coming to rest perpendicular to the runway. The most recent annual inspection was performed 3 months before the accident, and at that time the airplane had accumulated 13,962.8 hours of total time in service. The airplane was involved in another accident 2 months earlier that involved a hard landing. Thirteen days before the accident, the most recent maintenance was completed on the airplane that involved an inspection of the main landing gear. The airplane was found to be in airworthy condition, was signed off on that date, and at that time had 14,055.3 hours of total time in service. Examination of the inboard torque link lug of the right main landing gear revealed that it failed as a result of progressive fatigue cracking. The lugs are the subject of a Piper service bulletin recommending repetitive 100-hour recurrent inspections for cracking in the lugs. Although the complete loading history of the gear is unknown, it is likely that detectable indications of metal fatigue would have been present for more than 100 flight hours. There was no documentation in the airplane’s maintenance records that indicated that the factory service bulletin had been performed.

Analysis

Primary failure mode
Mechanical failure
First missed decision gate
Inspection of landing gear struts per service bulletin could have prevented failure.

NTSB coding

Evidence available

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

Docket documents11

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