What happened
On 7 November 2001, a Cessna 310R, registration G-BGTT, was preparing for a cargo flight from Jersey Airport to Guernsey. After taxiing to holding point 'Golf' without incident, the pilot received clearance from Air Traffic Control to line up on Runway 27. As the aircraft entered the runway, the right main landing gear suddenly collapsed. This failure caused the right wing and the right-hand propeller to make contact with the ground. The pilot immediately shut down both engines, secured the aircraft, and notified ATC of the accident. There were no injuries to the crew.
The investigation
Investigators examined the aircraft's landing gear assembly to determine the cause of the structural failure. The inspection revealed that the rivets responsible for attaching the landing gear torque tube support bracket assembly to the wing structure had failed. This structural failure caused the rear end of the torque tube to shift, which in turn allowed the side brace of the right main landing gear to move out of its locked position, leading to the collapse.
Further investigation into the aircraft's history showed that G-BGTT had been involved in a separate accident on 6 June 2001. In that previous event, the right main landing gear had failed to retract and had collapsed during landing. It is believed that the rivets in the torque tube support bracket had been subjected to overstressing during that June incident, though this underlying damage was not detected during later external inspections.