Manx2 crash landing was caused by mechanical failure

Video by ronaldswayspotter10 on Mar 9, 2012

Flight NM309 inbound from Leeds Bradford airport on the 8th of march 2012 sufferd from a right main-gear failure on landing. The aircraft , a Jetstream 31 G-CCPW operated by Linksair on behalf of Manx2.com veered of the runway just before 6pm and ended up in the grass along side the runway. Ronaldsway airport re-opened around 50 minutes after the accident. Thankfully nobody was seriously injured at the time.

The Fire crew, the pilots and all the other people involved acted very professionally in the situation.

© Ronaldswayspotter10 2011-2012

Published on Monday 26 March 2012 06:55

AIR accident investigators have confirmed that mechanical failure caused an aircraft to crash land at Ronaldsway.

The UK-based Air Accident Investigation Branch has issued a safety recommendation to the European Aviation Safety Agency following the accident.

Emergency services were called into action at just before 6pm on Thursday, March 8, when the Manx2 service from Leeds Bradford Airport got into difficulties after landing at Ronaldsway.

Twelve passengers were escorted shaken but unharmed from the aircraft which was operated by Lincolnshire-based Links Air, on behalf of Manx2. The two crew members also escaped unscathed.

Now a preliminary investigation by the AAIB has concluded that a corrosion crack in a metal component caused the right hand landing gear of the Jetstream to collapse, resulting in the plane skidding along the runway on its wingtip and coming to rest in the grass at the side.

The AAIB found that the accident was caused by stress corrosion cracking in a metal component at the top of the right main landing gear leg.

Its report describes how almost immediately after the aircraft touched down it leaned to the right and there was an unusual noise.

Investigators say that the corrosion was not detected by a visual inspection carried out 11 days before the incident nor during a test of the landing gear completed 10 months before – although the amount of corrosion in the crack and on the steel spigots suggest it was present then.

As these inspection requirements didn’t detect the crack, the AAIB has issued a safety recommendation to the European Aviation Safety Agency that it review the effectiveness of an airworthiness directive in identifying cracks in the yoke pintle housing on landing gears fitted to Jetstream 31 aircraft.

Source:  http://www.iomtoday.co.im