Piper PA-18-150 N7059

Summary

On 28 April 2012 at about 00:20 local time, a Piper PA-18-150 registered N7059, operated by State of Alaska Department of Public Safety, was involved in an accident near Paxon, Alaska, 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

28 April 2012 at 00:20

Classification

Accident

Location

Paxon, Alaska, United States

Coordinates

61.2105, -149.8905

Aircraft

Piper PA-18-150

Registration

N7059

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

State of Alaska Department of Public Safety

Operating rule

Public Use

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Anchorage → Paxon

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ANC12TA035

Nobody was injured.

A separation of the right main landing gear suspension strut assembly due to overstress, which resulted in the collapse of the main landing gear while landing.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot said he was landing a ski-equipped airplane on a remote, frozen and snow-covered lake. He said that as the skis contacted the flat and smooth snow-covered ice, the airplane pitched forward violently, then to the right, and then back to the left. A postaccident examination revealed that the right main landing gear had collapsed and subsequently folded under the airplane. An examination of the right main landing gear revealed a fractured suspension strut that had fractured laterally across a bored and threaded area of the suspension tube. The fractured tube was examined under magnification and there was no evidence of external corrosion. The tube had a long radius bend adjacent to the internal threads. The fracture had a clean, evenly colored fracture surface, and no evidence of repeated fracturing (beach marking). The fracture appearance is consistent with an overstress fracture. The pilot noted that, other than the fractured main landing suspension strut, there were no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airplane.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.