Aircraft Information
The aircraft involved was a Grumman AA-5 Traveller, registration G-BBSA, serial number AA5-0472, manufactured in 1974. It was powered by one Lycoming O-320-E2G piston engine.
Flight Details
The serious incident occurred on 22 May 2017 at 1420 UTC at Durham Tees Valley Airport. The flight was a training revalidation flight with two persons on board: the commander (pilot) and an instructor. The commander held a Commercial Pilot’s Licence, aged 53, with 536 total flying hours, including 73 hours on type. No passengers were carried. No injuries to crew occurred.
Pre-Flight and Takeoff
The pilot carried out a pre-flight inspection. He reported that the left engine cowl was known to be difficult to open. After disengaging the cowl’s latches, the cowl could not be opened, so he closed the latches again. The inspection of the engine bay and oil level was completed by opening the right cowl, which was then closed. The taxi and power checks were uneventful. The aircraft lined up on Runway 23, which is 2,291 m in length.
Incident Sequence
The takeoff run was normal. Just after the aircraft took off, at about 50 ft, there was a bang and the left cowl was seen to open and then “flap” back and forth over the right engine cowl. The instructor briefly took control and closed the throttle before passing control back to the pilot, who landed back onto the runway with about 700 m of runway remaining.
Post-Incident Inspection
A subsequent inspection of the aircraft found that the left cowl’s latches were still in place and undamaged. The pilot stated that it was most likely that the latches were not correctly secured after having tried to open the cowl. The nature of damage was limited to left engine cowling attachments.