Accident Piper PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage N548C,
ASN logo
ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 286675
 
This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information. If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can submit corrected information.

Date:Sunday 16 August 2009
Time:10:30 LT
Type:Silhouette image of generic PA46 model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different    
Piper PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage
Owner/operator:
Registration: N548C
MSN: 4636322
Year of manufacture:2001
Total airframe hrs:711 hours
Fatalities:Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage: Substantial
Category:Accident
Location:Sanford, Florida -   United States of America
Phase: Landing
Nature:Private
Departure airport:Gulf Shores-Edwards Airport, AL (GUF/KJKA)
Destination airport:Orlando Sanford International Airport, FL (SFB/KSFB)
Investigating agency: NTSB
Confidence Rating: Accident investigation report completed and information captured
Narrative:
During landing, as the nose landing gear wheel made contact with the runway, the airplane veered suddenly to the left and exited the runway, incurring substantial damage, before coming to a stop in the adjacent grass area. Examination of the airplane's nose gear assembly revealed the separation of the nose gear actuator attachment weld tube area (foot) of the motor mount. The metallurgical examination of fractured surface revealed fatigue crack emanating from multiple origins at the exterior of the joint where the attachment foot was welded to the support tube. The motor mount was a new design from the manufacturer which was to eliminate the concerns of fatigue separation of the weld in the foot area which was a problem with the old design motor mounts. The airplane had an annual inspection 36 flight hours prior to the accident. The new design motor mount does not have any specific inspection guidance during scheduled maintenance for identifying fatigue cracking in the actuator attach points. The old design motor mounts had detailed inspection instructions to detect fatigue cracking in the welds of the foot areas.

Probable Cause: The fatigue cracking at the point the nose landing gear actuator attaches to the mount resulting in separation of the actuator and partial collapse of the nose landing gear. Contributing to the accident was the lack of specific inspection guidance for scheduled maintenance to find and/or identify fatigue cracking in the welded actuator attach points of the newly designed mounts.

Accident investigation:
cover
  
Investigating agency: NTSB
Report number: ERA09LA471
Status: Investigation completed
Duration: 1 year and 4 months
Download report: Final report

Sources:

NTSB ERA09LA471

History of this aircraft

Other occurrences involving this aircraft
23 November 2010 N548C Private 3 off Destin, FL sub
CFIT

Location

Revision history:

Date/timeContributorUpdates
03-Oct-2022 14:18 ASN Update Bot Added

Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description

The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:

CONNECT WITH US: FSF on social media FSF Facebook FSF Twitter FSF Youtube FSF LinkedIn FSF Instagram

©2024 Flight Safety Foundation

1920 Ballenger Av, 4th Fl.
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
www.FlightSafety.org