Piper PA-44-180 N740FT

Summary

On 1 August 2012 at about 21:15 local time, a Piper PA-44-180 registered N740FT, operated by Space Coast Aviation, was involved in an accident near Titusville, Florida, United States. 3 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

1 August 2012 at 21:15

Classification

Accident

Location

Titusville, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

Space Coast Regional (TIX)

Coordinates

28.5147, -80.7992

Aircraft

Piper PA-44-180

Registration

N740FT

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Space Coast Aviation

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Merritt Island → Titusville

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA12LA494

Nobody was injured.

Inadequate maintenance servicing and inspection of the nose landing gear, which resulted in the failure of the nose landing gear to lock and its subsequent collapse during landing.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight instructor was conducting practice instrument landing system approaches during an instructional flight when he observed that the nose landing gear indicator light did not indicate down and locked. He observed that the nose gear was extended and he cycled the landing gear without any changes to the nose gear indicator light. During a subsequent landing attempt, the airplane initially touched down on the main landing gear; however, as the nose landing gear touched down, it began to collapse. The airplane came to rest about 2,500 feet from the approach end of the runway, and sustained substantial damage to the fuselage around the nose gear. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the nose landing gear eccentric bushing, which engaged the downlock hook, was out of adjustment. In addition, a check of the hydraulic system fluid reservoir dipstick revealed that the fluid level was below the amount that could be observed on the dipstick. After the hydraulic system fluid reservoir was properly serviced and the eccentric bushing adjusted, the landing gear functioned normally. The airplane had been operated for about 10 hours since its most recent 100-hour inspection, which was performed about 12 days earlier. The accident flight was the airplane's first flight after it was released from maintenance, which included a landing gear inspection and operational check.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.