Piper PA46R-350T N488EA

Summary

On 5 June 2012 at about 01:25 local time, a Piper PA46R-350T registered N488EA was involved in an accident near Cameron Park, California, 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

5 June 2012 at 01:25

Classification

Accident

Location

Cameron Park, California, United States

Nearest airport

Cameron Airpark (061)

Coordinates

38.6836, -120.9858

Aircraft

Piper PA46R-350T

Registration

N488EA

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Palo Alto → Cameron Park

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR12LA261

Nobody was injured.

The fatigue failure of the nose landing gear actuator attach foot during the landing roll. Contributing to the accident was the non-compliance with the manufacturer’s service bulletin.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

During the landing roll after a normal touchdown, the nose landing gear collapsed, and the airplane departed the side of the runway. The investigation determined that the gear collapse was the result of the fatigue failure of the right side nose gear actuator attach foot, which then separated from the engine mount. Records showed that the accident airplane had been flown more than 300 hours since its most recent compliance with the Piper Aircraft service bulletin (SB) 1103D, which calls for the inspection of this specific area for cracks every 100 hours. Although Piper Aircraft Company considers its service bulletins to be mandatory actions, the Federal Aviation Administration does not require that service bulletins be complied with for aircraft that are used exclusively for 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 operations, as this airplane was. Therefore, neither the owner of the airplane nor the maintenance personnel who performed annual inspections on the airplane were required to ensure compliance with SB 1103D. Failure to comply with SB 1103D could result in the nondetection of fatigue cracks that would eventually lead to the failure of a component of the engine mount/gear support assembly, as occurred in this accident.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.