British JETSTREAM 3101 N460CE

Summary

On 27 August 1999 at about 16:10 local time, a British JETSTREAM 3101 registered N460CE was involved in an incident near South Bend, Indiana, United States. 20 people were on board and nobody was injured. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

27 August 1999 at 16:10

Classification

Incident

Location

South Bend, Indiana, United States

Nearest airport

Michiana Regional (SBN)

Coordinates

41.6703, -86.2609

Aircraft

British JETSTREAM 3101

Registration

N460CE

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Chicago → Grand Rapids

Aircraft damage

Not recorded

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CHI99IA350

Nobody was injured.

the right engine accessory section's splined gear spur gear failure during cruise flight.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane sustained an in-flight failure of the right engine. The captain performed the checklist to shut down the engine and performed the single engine landing. No injuries were reported. A review of the engine history revealed that this was the third "in-flight shutdown" for this engine. The engine's time since new was 21,101.8 hours, its time since overhaul was 2,414.3 hour, and its time installed on the airplane since its last maintenance was 76.4 hours. The reason for the last maintenance was an "in-flight shutdown." The accessory section was examined at the NTSB Materials Laboratory. The report stated that the spur gear appeared undamaged. The spur gearshaft had portions of teeth missing. The housing had markings and impressions consistent with splined spur gear contact. The splined spur gear was found fractured and deformed into an oval shape, resulting in a gap between the mating fracture faces. The outer surfaces parallel to the circumferential plane of the splined spur gear appeared rubbed, and portions had a blue-purple tint consistent with frictional heating. Areas of the fracture surfaces also had a similar blue-purple tint. Portions of five external gear teeth were missing. All of the internal spline's teeth peaks were missing and the teeth were deformed. One radial fracture face had smooth flat features, consistent with fatigue and crack arrest lines were found. The fatigue had multiple origins. Inner diameter origins were located in the root of a spline. The contact surface of the spline tooth adjacent to the fracture origin was deformed consistent with rotational contact with spline crowns. Hardness of the splined spur gear was measured to be 38 HRC, which was within its specified range.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.