Eclipse EA500 N508JA

Summary

On 12 June 2015 at about 00:00 local time, a Eclipse EA500 registered N508JA, operated by Nemly Aviation, was involved in an accident near Sacramento, California, United States. 4 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

12 June 2015 at 00:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Sacramento, California, United States

Nearest airport

Sacramento Executive (SAC)

Coordinates

38.5108, -121.4892

Aircraft

Eclipse EA500

Registration

N508JA

Category

Airplane

Year built

2006

Engines

2

Operator

Nemly Aviation

Operating rule

Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Sacramento → San Francisco

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR15LA184

Nobody was injured.

A manufacturing defect that resulted in fatigue failure of the left main landing gear trunnion.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

According to the airline transport pilot and the commercial pilot, the airplane was taxiing to the runway when they heard a loud bang and the airplane veered to the left. The pilots contacted the tower controller, who informed them that the airplane was leaking a large amount of fuel onto the tarmac. The pilots shut down the airplane and evacuated the passengers. Further examination of the airplane revealed that the left main landing gear trunnion had punctured the left wing. Postaccident examination revealed that the left main landing gear assembly had fractured due to a fatigue crack that emanated from a sharp corner of a machined feature on the inner surface of the trunnion. The deep machining gouge mark was likely the result of an error in cleaning operation during manufacture; the cleaning tool could have extended deeper into the tapered inner surface than intended and created the deep machine gouge mark. The fatigue crack initiated on the inside of the tube and grew to a crucial size without reaching the outer wall of the tube. As a result, the crack would not have been visible during a visual inspection. The manufacturer reported that, following the accident, they identified a systemic manufacturing defect that potentially affected the entire fleet. A mandatory service bulletin was issued to address the problem, as well as the initiation of a fleet-wide inspection and landing gear trunnion repair/replacement program.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.