- Date
- November 12, 1990, 21:19 local (Nov 13, 1990, 02:19 UTC)
- Place
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N54SACessna 404
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report September 28, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19901112050989A
- Case key
- 36841
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
A failure of nose landing gear retraction cylinder attach points which allowed the nose landing gear to collapse.
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
The Cessna 404 operating on a cargo flight touched down and the nose landing gear collapsed. The FAA examined the airplane and found the attach points for the nose landing gear retraction cylinder had ripped out. The bolt holes showed signs of working and were worn. In addition, they reported the maintenance manual reference to the area is general in nature. The location of the failure is very difficult to view during inspection due to limited access.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N54SA
- Reported as
- Cessna 404
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 404-0426
- Airframe hours
- 9,310
- Engine
- Continental GTSIO-520-M, 375 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 135
- Operator
- Superior Aviation Inc
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · October 12, 1990 · 33 hours before
- Departed
- CBE · Cumberland, MD
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- PIT · Pittsburgh, runway 28R, 10,502 × 150 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
- 26
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Flight hours
- 2,103 total · 50 in this make and model · 1,963 as pilot in command · 60 in the last 90 days · 60 in the last 30 days · 3 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- 290° at 10 knots
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 30 °F, dew point 19 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.