Accident Sequence
During the landing roll, the aircraft began to veer to the left. The pilot found that aileron and rudder control were not effective in realigning the aircraft's direction of travel. He then transferred control to the nose wheel steering. As he applied corrective input fully to the right, he heard a "clink" sound. Subsequently, the aircraft exited the side of the runway and collided with terrain.
Post-Accident Inspection
A post-accident inspection of the aircraft revealed a broken nose wheel steering cable. The cable was sent to the National Transportation Safety Board Materials Laboratory for examination. The specialist reported that the end of many wires exhibited fractures on a flat plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, typical of a fatigue crack. Approximately 90 percent of the flat areas extended through the fracture face. The metallurgist reported that about 50 percent of the wires from the cable contained fatigue cracking.