Cessna A185F N104DE

Summary

On 30 May 2007 at about 23:30 local time, a Cessna A185F registered N104DE was involved in an accident near Shearer, Idaho, United States. 3 people were on board and one was seriously injured, one had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

30 May 2007 at 23:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Shearer, Idaho, United States

Nearest airport

Private

Coordinates

45.9375, -114.8389

Aircraft

Cessna A185F

Registration

N104DE

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Missoula → North Star Rch

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA07LA140

1 person was seriously injured.

A fracture and separation of the left main landing gear strut during the landing roll due to fatigue.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The left main landing gear separated during the landing roll. Post accident metallurgical examination showed that the fracture occurred due to fatigue cracks that emanated from the chamfer areas at two bolt hole locations on the inboard side of the strut. The period of time that was required to cause propagation of the fatigue crack regions was not determined, but most of the brown region fractured in a single event. Because this was in existence for very few flight cycles, a visual inspection of the lower surfaces of the spring strut would have to have been conducted just before the accident flight in order to detect the crack, and even then, it would have been difficult to see. All of the small fatigue cracks at the origin areas were covered by the washers and would not have been visually detectable. Although the Safety Board issued previous recommendations about this issue, the Federal Aviation Administration reported that the visual inspections called out in the maintenance manuals are, "...adequate to detect cracks in the main landing gear struts and that additional airworthiness action is not warranted." On March 25, 2002, the NTSB responded by stating, in part: "The Safety Board continues to believe that a visual inspection alone will not detect cracks in the Cessna main landing gear spring struts. However, the Safety Board acknowledges that the statistical evidence does not warrant issuance of ADs at this time as called for in the Board's recommendation." The safety recommendation was then classified as: "Closed-Reconsidered."

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.