On April 14, 2016, at 0822 eastern daylight time, a Czech Sport Aircraft AS Piper Sport, N197PS, impacted runway 32 during landing at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport (MFD), Mansfield, Ohio. The nose landing gear separated at a weld, which resulted in the airplane nose impacting the runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the engine firewall. The pilot was uninjured. The airplane was registered to an operated by the pilot under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight that was not operating on a flight plan. The flight departed from Columbia Airport, Columbia Station, Ohio at 0745 and was destined to MFD.
The pilot stated that after the main landing gear touch down at an airspeed of about 55 knots, he began to ease backpressure on the control stick. As the backpressure eased, the nosewheel landing gear strut separated from the airplane. The airplane slid on the runway for about 150 feet and the nosewheel/strut remained about 30 feet behind the airplane and along the runway centerline.
Postaccident examination of the nose landing gear, part number SG0270N, by a Federal Aviation Administration Aviation Safety Inspector revealed that it had fractured at a weld.
According to a logbook entry dated August 18, 2014, at an engine total time since new of 196.6 hours, the nose landing gear was inspected in accordance with a Czech Sport Aircraft AS service bulletin, SB-CR-016. There were no subsequent logbook entries citing compliance with SB-CR-016.
The pilot reported that the nose landing gear accumulated a total time in service of 371 hours at the time of the accident and was last inspected 31 hours in service before the time of the accident. The airplane and engine total times in service at the time of the accident were 371 hours.
Czech Sport Aircraft AS service bulletin, SB-CR-016, dated October 9, 2013, Inspection of the Landing Gear Leg for all SportCruiser aircraft with the [nose landing gear] (NLG) SG0270N, all Piper Sport aircraft with the NLG SG0270N installed, and all PS-28 Cruiser aircraft with the NLG SG0270N installed, stated:
"Some Sport Cruiser / Piper Sport / PS-28 Cruiser aircraft have developed cracks in the bottom side of the lower section of the nose landing gear. The cracks develop on the nose landing gear assembly along the weld of the tube and the bracket. Furthermore, on several aircraft bending of the pivot connecting the fork with leg was discovered and cracks from holes of bolts on the fork. To address this potentially unsafe condition, a repetitive inspection is required of the bottom side of the lower section, in the area of the weld of the tube, the bracket and the pivot and the fork in the place of the bolts mounting the fork to the landing gear."
The compliance with SB-CR-016 was cited as:
A. Before next flight after issue of this bulletin.
B. Periodically at each 25 FH or 50 cycles whatever occurs first check as described in documents [1] for PS-28 Cruiser and [2] for Sport Cruiser (see REFERENCES).
C. During pre-flight check (see POH, Section 4, 4.1 Pre-flight check, Inspection Check List, Point 4 - Nose gear) visually inspect pivot (see the picture on the Page 3 of 4 of this Service Bulletin) and verify that there is no evidence of cracks or bending.