Piper PA-44-180 N938ER

Summary

On 29 March 2006 at about 15:42 local time, a Piper PA-44-180 registered N938ER, operated by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, was involved in an accident near Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. 2 people were 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

29 March 2006 at 15:42

Classification

Accident

Location

Daytona Beach, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

Daytona Beach International (DAB)

Coordinates

Not recorded

Aircraft

Piper PA-44-180

Registration

N938ER

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Bunnell → Daytona Beach

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

MIA06LA074

Nobody was injured.

Failure of the nose landing gear upper drag brace assembly due to overload acting on an undetected forging defect formed during the initial forging of the brace. A contributing factor in this accident was the runway distance remaining sign.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The landing gear was confirmed to be down and locked, three green annunciator lights were noted, and the nose landing gear was visually seen to be down and locked. The airplane touched down, veered sharply to the left and departed the runway. It collided with a runway distance remaining sign, damaging the right wing. Post-accident examination revealed the nose landing gear had collapsed. The upper drag brace (that connects the nose gear to the fuselage) was fractured, and the pivot lug (that connects the upper brace to the lower brace) was fractured in two places. The pivot lug fractures were consistent with overload stress separations. At least 13 internal horizontal and parallel cracks were uncovered near the vertical centerline of the brace. The cracks followed the grain flow lines resulting from forging. Flow lines were longitudinal in the arm portion of the brace with a smooth, gently curving transition into the thicker portion of the lug. However, flow lines in the upper fracture were convoluted and tightly twisted. A laboratory-induced fracture of the brace revealed an irregular boundary with ductile overstress features interspersed along the edge of the crack. Low magnification revealed a smooth, undulating surface. High magnification revealed a fine granular texture. Energy dispersive x-ray spectra revealed an increased oxygen level on the crack surface.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.