Air Tractor AT-802A N90802

Summary

On 2 May 2002 at about 01:58 local time, a Air Tractor AT-802A registered N90802 was involved in an accident near Kingman, Arizona, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

2 May 2002 at 01:58

Classification

Accident

Location

Kingman, Arizona, United States

Nearest airport

Kingman (IGM)

Coordinates

35.2658, -113.9411

Aircraft

Air Tractor AT-802A

Registration

N90802

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Positioning

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Bullhead City → Kingman

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX02LA147

Nobody was injured.

The failure of the pilot to maintain directional control during landing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane ground looped during landing and the left main landing gear strut fractured and separated. The pilot told a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector that the landing gear strut collapsed unexpectedly, and without warning, during the landing roll, and the airplane ground looped to the right. It was not subjected to an abnormal load during landing and the airplane was relatively light with no chemical load aboard and about 1,300 pounds of fuel. The inspector examined the airplane and said the left landing gear leaf broke inside the saddle. There was rust and beach marks in the fracture face indicative of a pre-existing crack. The FAA inspector said the left landing gear strut, a single spring steel leaf, separated in the shoulder area where the strut enters the saddle at the fuselage skin line. The left landing gear wheel was broken in the outboard flange area and the tire was deflated. The tire exhibited deep radial scratch marks on the outboard side wall. The aileron hinge bracket at the left wing tip was bent inboard and striations on the left wing lower surface were oriented spanwise. The left wing outer half-span was bent upward accompanied by compression wrinkling of the upper wing skin. Examination of the fracture by a metallurgical laboratory revealed that the strut met the manufacturer's chemical, hardness, and materials specifications for the component. The fracture through the strut was characterized by two distinct modes. The first was 0.08 inches in depth and 0.37 inches in width and exhibited features consistent with fatigue. The fatigue crack had multiple initiation sites along the top surface in an area that had fretting damage. The remainder of the fracture face displayed gross overload features. According to the laboratory report, the transverse failure of the strut resulted from an overload condition, with high side and drag loads, well in excess of the design ultimate load for the component.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.