What happened
During the conclusion of a personal flight, the pilot was performing a landing when the Cessna aircraft turned abruptly to the left and exited the side of the runway. Upon exiting the paved surface, the landing gear encountered muddy terrain, which caused the nose landing gear to collapse.
The investigation
An NTSB materials engineer inspected the nose gear support structure following the accident. This inspection revealed that the right nose gear attachment foot had fractured at the right engine support mount. The failure was identified as a fatigue failure.
Records indicated that the airframe manufacturer had issued a service bulletin recommending increased inspections of this specific area due to a history of cracking. Although the service bulletin had been complied with approximately 18 service hours before the failure, portions of the failed component had not been completely stripped of paint as recommended for an effective crack inspection. The investigation also noted that the existing service bulletin had since been superseded by a new bulletin that reduced inspection intervals. Furthermore, the manufacturer has developed a replacement part designed to eliminate the need for repetitive inspections, and the original-style component is no longer available for replacement.