Cessna 175 N9343B

Summary

On 10 September 2021 at about 16:40 local time, a Cessna 175 registered N9343B was involved in an accident near Hot Springs, South Dakota, United States. 4 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

10 September 2021 at 16:40

Classification

Accident

Location

Hot Springs, South Dakota, United States

Nearest airport

Hot Springs Muni (HSR)

Coordinates

43.4303, -103.4762

Aircraft

Cessna 175

Registration

N9343B

Category

Airplane

Year built

1958

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Wall → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN21LA416

Nobody was injured.

The tensile overload failure of the main landing gear attachment bolt, which resulted in separation of the left main landing gear and a loss of control during landing.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot reported the airplane touched down “with a gentle skip then easing forward on the yoke pinned my main gear firmly on the turf.” During the landing roll, the airplane began to veer to the right, and the pilot applied rudder inputs to correct. The airplane subsequently spun around and came to rest upright with the left main landing gear leg separated. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and main landing gear box structure. An attachment bolt for the left main landing gear strut was found fractured and separated from the strut. Metallurgical examination of the fractured bolt and the landing gear strut plate revealed the bolt fractured due to tensile overload that led to shearing of the bolt threads. The bolt was fully threaded into the self-locking nut plate and there was no evidence of looseness before the failure. The damage pattern of the fractured bolt and bent strut plate were consistent with an overload failure of the inboard attachment with no evidence of any preexisting damage or weakness in the attachment. It is likely the main landing gear failure was the result of excessive loading on the attachment during the landing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.