Cirrus SR20 N475DA

Summary

On 5 June 2008 at about 12:40 local time, a Cirrus SR20 registered N475DA, operated by Delta Connection Academy, Inc., was involved in an incident near Sanford, Florida, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was slightly damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

5 June 2008 at 12:40

Classification

Incident

Location

Sanford, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

Orlando Sanford Int. Airport (SFB)

Coordinates

28.7767, -81.2353

Aircraft

Cirrus SR20

Registration

N475DA

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Delta Connection Academy, Inc.

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Sanford → Sanford

Aircraft damage

Minor

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

NYC08IA206

Nobody was injured.

A failure of the nose landing gear strut weldment.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

While practicing takeoffs and landings with a student, the flight instructor noted a "shimmy" in the nose landing gear during the first three landings, but did not think it was out of the ordinary. During the fourth landing, the student pilot "did not flare enough, which resulted in a three-point landing" and a subsequent "porpoise" of the airplane. The airplane bounced two or three times before he took control of the airplane and taxied clear of the runway. During the next landing, performed by the instructor, the nose landing gear collapsed. Postincident inspections conducted by the operator revealed that the nose landing gear strut weldment had cracked. The incident prompted the flight school to inspect their entire fleet of Cirrus SR20 airplanes, of which nine others exhibited cracking in the same location as the incident airplane. The airframe manufacturer subsequently issued a service bulletin mandating inspections of the nose landing gear strut for cracking. The service bulletin outlined the procedures to detect cracking, and specified corrective action that included replacement of the nose landing gear strut with a redesigned part if cracking over 0.19 inches was observed.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.