Cessna 140 N55DC

Summary

On 20 October 2022 at about 17:10 local time, a Cessna 140 registered N55DC was involved in an accident near Georgetown, California, 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

20 October 2022 at 17:10

Classification

Accident

Location

Georgetown, California, United States

Nearest airport

Georgetown Airport (E36)

Coordinates

38.9211, -120.8648

Aircraft

Cessna 140

Registration

N55DC

Category

Airplane

Year built

1946

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Georgetown → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR23LA021

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s failure to maintain control during an attempted go-around, which resulted in a runway excursion and a separation of the right main landing gear.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

After the pilot reduced the engine speed to idle while landing, the main landing gear touched down and the airplane bounced. The pilot then floated the airplane down the runway to decelerate the airspeed. The airplane touched down again in a nose high attitude then veered off the left side of the runway. The pilot applied full power to abort the landing, but the airplane continued off the left side of the runway and contacted vegetation before proceeding down a slope, which resulted in substantial damage to the left aileron and left horizontal stabilizer. The right main landing gear leg also separated from the airplane and came to rest in the debris path. Postaccident examination of the landing gear assembly revealed that the right main landing gear leg was normally secured to a support assembly within the airframe by a bolt, washer, and nut. The bolt remained attached with its associated hardware, but the bolthead had fractured in overstress. In addition, there was downward deformation at the lower support of the main landing gear support assembly, likely due to an exceedance of the yield strength of the metal and consistent with overload separation. As the bolt and damaged area of the support assembly are designed to transfer the landing gear loads directly to the airframe, the evidence in this case suggests that the right main landing gear support assembly failed as the result of the pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during an attempted go-around, which resulted in runway excursion and a separation of the right main landing gear.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.