Cessna 310F N6781X

Summary

On 1 April 2011 at about 19:45 local time, a Cessna 310F registered N6781X, operated by Edward Moon, was involved in an accident near Sanford, 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

1 April 2011 at 19:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Sanford, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

Orlando Sanford International (SFB)

Coordinates

28.7803, -81.2705

Aircraft

Cessna 310F

Registration

N6781X

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Edward Moon

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Sanford → Sanford

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA11LA221

Nobody was injured.

The failure of the nose landing gear due to inadequate servicing of the nose gear strut reservoir.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight instructor and private pilot were performing touch-and-go landings. While retracting the landing gear, they heard a loud bang. The gear-up light illuminated, indicating that all three landing gears were retracted and the doors were closed. The instructor concluded that the noise came from the landing gear doors closing into each other. The flight continued, and two more landings were planned: one touch-and-go and one full stop. The landing gear appeared to operate normally during the touch-and-go. Upon extending the gear for the full stop landing, the gear-down light failed to illuminate. After checking the gear down indicating system, a visual check with the tower controllers confirmed that all three landing gears were in the down position. During touchdown, the nose gear collapsed. A postaccident examination of the nose gear assembly revealed that the nose landing gear strut reservoir lacked air pressure and the fluid level was very low. This underserviced condition caused binding in the nose gear fork assembly and failure of a nose gear push rod, which prevented the nose gear from extending to the full down and locked position.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.