Metal fatigue caused a plane's landing gear to collapse shortly after the pilot touched down during a practice flight nearly 1-1/2 years ago at Rialto Municipal Airport, federal crash investigators say.
The two-seat Citabria skidded off the runway and hit a taxiway sign, damaging the plane’s fuselage and left wing during the 10:30 a.m. accident on Nov. 27, 2010. No one was hurt.
Pilot Dustin P. Slater, of Mount Baldy, and instructor pilot Ronald A. Meyer, of San Dimas, had taken off an hour earlier from Cable Airport in Upland and made four practice landings at Rialto, according to National Transportation Safety Board records.
With Slater at the controls, the plane had just touched down for the fifth landing when the left landing gear snapped off the aircraft, Meyer said in a written statement to investigators. Efforts were made to keep the airplane level on its right wheel and tail wheel until the speed decreased and the plane skidded to a stop in a left-hand arc.
The NTSB’s final report on the accident was released Thursday.
NTSB Identification: WPR11LA063
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Saturday, November 27, 2010 in Rialto, CA
Probable Cause Approval Date: 03/08/2012
Aircraft: CHAMPION 7KCAB, registration: N5101X
Injuries: 2 Uninjured.
The certified flight instructor stated that he and the pilot receiving instruction were practicing landings in the tailwheel-equipped airplane. He said that during a wheel landing, with the pilot receiving instruction manipulating the flight controls, the airplane's left main landing gear collapsed, and the airplane skidded to the left and contacted a taxiway sign. The instructor reported that the wind was calm at the time of the accident. Postaccident metallurgical examination revealed that the left landing gear fractured at its inboard end due to fatigue cracking and corrosion damage.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
Fatigue cracking of the left main landing gear leg, which resulted in a gear collapse during landing.
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