Loofbourrow John W RUTAN DEFIANT N770JL

Summary

On 16 November 2016 at about 20:25 local time, a Loofbourrow John W RUTAN DEFIANT registered N770JL was involved in an accident near Morristown, New Jersey, United States. One person was 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

16 November 2016 at 20:25

Classification

Accident

Location

Morristown, New Jersey, United States

Nearest airport

Morristown Muni (MMU)

Coordinates

40.7994, -74.4150

Aircraft

Loofbourrow John W RUTAN DEFIANT

Registration

N770JL

Category

Airplane

Year built

2003

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

South Bend → Morristown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA17LA054

Nobody was injured.

A collapse of the nose landing gear due to wear in the landing gear extension system.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The experimental amateur-built airplane was landing after an uneventful personal flight. While landing on a runway, the retractable nose landing gear collapsed, the rudder that was mounted on the bottom of the fuselage contacted the runway pavement, substantially damaging it. Postaccident examination of the nose landing gear system revealed that the bottom of the down lock was worn (beveled). When the nose wheel landing gear was extended, the bottom of the down lock, which hooked over a pivot shaft to lock the landing gear down, contacted the pivot shaft around the area of the centerline and did not extend past the centerline of the pivot shaft. Drawings of the assembly’s normal functions indicated that the down lock could move and unlock the landing gear when the assembly was under load. At the time of the accident, the airplane had accumulated about 1,338 landings. Given this information, it is likely that the wear to the nose landing gear down lock allowed the nose landing gear to collapse during the landing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.