What happened
An instructor and a student were conducting touch-and-go landings on runway 34 at Tooele. While the student was at the controls, the first landing resulted in a medium hard bounce. The crew continued the traffic pattern, but the student subsequently made a second hard landing.
Following the second landing, a ground witness contacted the instructor via radio to report that the right main landing gear appeared to be bent aft. The crew decided to return to Salt Lake City to ensure access to emergency ground crews. During an emergency landing on runway 35, the right landing gear bent aft and separated from the aircraft as it rolled out. The occupants were not injured.
The investigation
The instructor's accident report included a belief that the right landing gear strut had been weakened by metal fatigue prior to the accident. However, several FAA inspectors performed a visual inspection of the aircraft following the event and found no evidence of fatigue failure.