- Date
- September 2, 1992, 16:00 local (20:00 UTC)
- Place
- Homestead, FL
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N975DAPiper PA-34-200
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report September 14, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19920902056369A
- Case key
- 33128
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The failure of maintenance personnel to comply with a service bulletin, which allowed a cracked landing gear housing to go undetected, resulting in failure of the landing gear.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
Flight experienced collapse of the left main landing gear during landing rollout. The pilot/mechanic reported the strut housing had cracked and failed just below the point the trunion web ends. Piper aircraft corporation service bulletin 787A, dated August 15, 1985, requires inspection of the landing gear housing just below the trunion web for cracks each 100 hours. If a new landing gear strut housing is installed in which the trunion web extends the length of the housing the inspection is not required. No record of compliance with service bulletin 787A was found in the logbooks for N975DA. On June 22, 1990, the NTSB issued safety recommendation A-90-92 to the federal aviation administration, recommending that Piper service bulletin 787A be made mandatory by issuance of an airworthiness directive.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N975DA
- Reported as
- Piper PA-34-200
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 34-7250216
- Airframe hours
- 4,900
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-360-C1E6, 200 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- John Oklesen
- Registered owner
- Aviation Enterprises, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · June 9, 1992 · 80 hours before
- Departed
- PGD · Punta Gorda, FL
- Airport
- X51 · Homestead General Aviatio, runway 18, 4,000 × 100 ft, asphalt
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 49
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 3,500 total · 100 in this make and model · 3,350 as pilot in command
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 90° at 16 knots
- Visibility
- 7 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 30,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 88 °F, dew point 75 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- MIA, 20 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.