Cessna 172RG N6272R

Summary

On 10 January 2009 at about 19:00 local time, a Cessna 172RG registered N6272R, operated by National Pilot Academy, was involved in an accident near Carson City, Nevada, United States. 2 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 January 2009 at 19:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Carson City, Nevada, United States

Nearest airport

Carson Airport (CXP)

Coordinates

39.1922, -119.7344

Aircraft

Cessna 172RG

Registration

N6272R

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

National Pilot Academy

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Carson City → Carson City

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR09LA083

Nobody was injured.

The overload failure of the landing gear actuator at an undetermined time.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

During the landing approach the pilot was unable to fully extend the right main landing gear. Following multiple troubleshooting attempts he retracted the left and nose landing gear and performed a partial gear-up landing. During the landing sequence the airplane sustained substantial damage to the belly structure. Postaccident examination revealed multiple fractures in the right main landing gear actuator housing and mechanical damage to the internal piston rack. Analysis of the fractures revealed that they had failed in overload. Examination of an exemplar actuator, piston, and sector gear revealed that the mechanical damage to the teeth on the sector gear occurred after the initial failure of the actuator housing and was not causal to the failure. The airplane manufacturer had released a service bulletin addressing repeated inspections for cracks at a specific location in the actuator body, a typical procedure for monitoring of fatigue cracks. Although it appeared that the operator had not complied with the service bulletin, the primary cracks were in a different location and displayed features consistent with an overload event. Although the airplane had been used for flight training, and the overload failure of the actuator was likely caused by a prior hard landing, the investigation was unable to determine the initiating event.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.