9 Jun 2017: PIPER PA 44-180 180

9 Jun 2017: PIPER PA 44-180 180 (N3020M) — Unknown operator

No fatalities • Gaithersburg, MD, United States

Probable cause

The failure of the right main landing gear trunnion bracket due to an undetermined overstress event.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On June 8, 2017, about 2110 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-44-180 airplane, N3020M, was substantially damaged during landing rollout at Montgomery County Airpark (GAI), Gaithersburg, Maryland. The flight instructor and two student pilots were not injured. The instructional flight was conducted under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the local flight.According to the flight instructor, he was returning to home base after a training flight that consisted of basic maneuvers, as well as two takeoffs and landings to a full stop. During the final approach the flight instructor configured the airplane for landing and briefed the student pilot. The touchdown was uneventful and during the landing roll the airplane began veering to the right of centerline. The airplane came to a full stop and the instructor performed an engine shutdown before exiting the airplane. On inspection of the airplane the flight instructor noted that the right main landing gear was collapsed and bent backwards towards the aft of the airplane.

Examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that the aft right wing spar web was damaged during the landing sequence. Further examination of the landing gear revealed that the right aft main landing gear trunnion bracket failed. A visual examination of the fracture surfaces by the NTSB Materials laboratory revealed that there were no signs of fatigued failure within the trunnion, and the bracket failed during an overstress event. A review of the logbooks did not reveal any recent maintenance to the landing gear assembly.

Contributing factors

  • cause Main landing gear attach sec — Failure

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 310/04kt, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.