- Date
- September 15, 1992, 13:25 local (17:25 UTC)
- Place
- Panacea, FL
- Injuries
- 1 minor
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Unknown
- Aircraft
- N3791XAero Commander 100
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report June 21, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19920915040809A
- Case key
- 33135
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
Failure of the nose landing gear push/pull rod end bearing for undetermined reasons.
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
After touchdown during the landing roll, the nose landing gear collapsed and the acft nosed over and came to rest inverted. Exam of the nose landing gear by an FAA inspector revealed that the rod end bearing attached to the single steering push/pull rod, separated. This allowed the nose landing gear to rotate 90 degrees to the direction of travel. The rod end bearing was not located. The push/pull rod was not examined therefore no determination could be made as to the reason for the failure.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N3791X
- Reported as
- Aero Commander 100
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 287
- Airframe hours
- 1,920
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-A2B, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Fragos, John
- Registered owner
- Fragos, John
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · December 31, 1991 · 50 hours before
- Departed
- 40J · Perry, FL
- Destination
- PFN · Panama City, FL
- Airport
- 2J0 · Wakulla County, runway 18, 2,880 × 170 ft, grass/turf
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
- 52
- Certificates
- Airline transport, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 10,800 total · 300 in this make and model · 9,000 as pilot in command · 25 in the last 90 days · 10 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 30° at 12 knots
- Visibility
- 7 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 25,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 84 °F, dew point 66 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- TLH, 24 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.
Other investigations on N3791X · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.