What happened
On March 26, 2017, a Tecnam P2-008 JC, registration F-ORVY, was performing a navigation flight from Moorea Temae to Tahiti Faa’a. During the landing roll on runway 04, the pilot experienced intense vibrations as the nose wheel made contact with the paved surface. In an attempt to alleviate the vibration, the pilot pulled back on the control column to lift the nose wheel off the ground. However, as the aircraft decelerated and the nose wheel returned to the runway, the vibrations recurred. The nose gear subsequently failed, causing the aircraft to nose over and come to a halt on the runway. The aircraft sustained heavy damage, but no injuries were reported to the pilot or the passenger.
The investigation
The investigation focused on the structural integrity of the landing gear. Post-accident examination by a maintenance facility revealed that the nose gear had failed at a weld point. The investigation noted that Tecnam had previously issued Service Bulletin SB 215 – CS following a similar incident involving a different aircraft (HB-KMJ) in 2015. This bulletin recommends a visual inspection of the nose gear welds every 25 flight hours.
At the time of the accident, the aircraft had flown 21 hours since its last visual inspection and had recently completed a 100-hour maintenance check. Following the accident, the operator performed an enhanced inspection on their second Tecnam P2008 JC in the fleet. By stripping the paint from the weld area, the operator discovered a crack that had not been visible during standard visual inspections.