Piper PA-44-180 N274ER

Summary

On 14 November 2007 at about 21:45 local time, a Piper PA-44-180 registered N274ER was involved in an accident near Byron, California, United States. 3 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

14 November 2007 at 21:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Byron, California, United States

Nearest airport

Byron Airport (C83)

Coordinates

37.8286, -121.6258

Aircraft

Piper PA-44-180

Registration

N274ER

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Hayward → Byron

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA08LA029

Nobody was injured.

The failure of the right main landing gear aft trunnion attach fitting due to overload during the landing roll.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

After touchdown during the landing roll, the flight instructor heard a "clunking" sound, followed by the airplane dropping slightly to the right. The flight instructor subsequently heard a second "clunk" as the airplane's right wing dropped to the runway. A post-accident examination revealed that the right main landing gear aft trunnion attach fitting had failed. A subsequent metallurgical examination revealed that although a fatigue region was identified on one of the 3 fracture surfaces, it was relatively small, and that the attach fitting most likely failed due to overload.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.