Cessna 172N N75908

Summary

On 6 March 2002 at about 16:25 local time, a Cessna 172N registered N75908, operated by Aerial Messages Inc.,, was involved in an accident near Bunnell, Florida, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 died. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

6 March 2002 at 16:25

Classification

Accident

Location

Bunnell, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

Flagler County Airport (X47)

Coordinates

29.4639, -81.2117

Aircraft

Cessna 172N

Registration

N75908

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Aerial Messages Inc.,

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Other Work Use

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Bunnell → Bunnell

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

MIA02FA066

2 people died.

Inadequate maintenance inspection of the airplane by comapny maintenance personnel which resulted in corrosion in an aileron control cable going undetected, failure of the aileron control cable, and impact with terrain following loss of control of the airplane.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

Witnesses stated that the accident airplane had just dropped a banner, and was being maneuvered from base to final, to execute a landing on runway 06 when the pilot made a radio communications transmission stating that aileron control had been lost. The airplane was observed at an altitude of about 200 to 300 feet, in about a 30-degree bank to the left, and the bank angle continued to increase as the airplane descended, disappearing from sight behind the treeline. The airplane impacted the ground nose-down, in a near vertical attitude, suspended by trees. Examination of the airplane showed that the aileron control cable was found to have separated between the bell crank in the left wing in the vicinity of the right upper doorpost pulley on its way to the control yoke. Corrosion was present on the upper left and right doorpost pulley bearing, the lower right doorpost pulley bearing, the bulkhead assembly-rear doorpost channel near the upper pulley, and the inner surface of the wing skins and ribs of both the left and right wings. The right wing forward flap cable was found to have separated about 27 inches from the bellcrank in the right wing, and corrosion was observed at the flap attachment rods and both the left and right attachment rods were bent. Sections a broken flap and aileron cables were examined at the NTSB Materials Laboratory, Washington, D.C., and the examination revealed that the wire rope of the flap cable was separated with almost all of the wires broken within a 0.5-inch axial length. There was minor unraveling of the strands adjacent to the separation, but no unraveling of the individual wires within strands. Detailed examination with a bench binocular microscope revealed extensive corrosion damage at the broken ends, with many of the individual wires corroded all of the way through. Dark deposits that appeared to be a mixture of oxidation debris and dried grease were noted within about 1 inch of the broken ends. The wire rope of the aileron cable had separated with almost all of the wires broken within a 0.5-inch axial length. There was some unraveling of the strands as well as the individual wires within strands adjacent to the separation. Detailed examination with a bench binocular microscope revealed extensive corrosion damage at the broken ends, with many of the individual wires corroded all of the way through. Dark and rust-colored oxidation deposits were noted within about 1.5 inches of the broken ends.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.