What happened
During a scheduled training session at Baroda airport, a training aircraft was performing a series of touch-and-go maneuvers. The flight was being conducted by an examiner pilot with a trainee occupying the right-hand seat. While the initial touch-and-go exercise was completed without incident, a mechanical failure occurred during the second attempt.
Upon making contact with the runway during the second maneuver, the left main landing gear experienced a structural failure. Specifically, the shock strut's outer cylinder failed, causing the inner cylinder and the attached main wheel assembly to detach from the airframe.
Following this separation, the aircraft continued its forward motion along the runway. The remaining segment of the left shock strut made contact with the runway surface, followed by the fuselage underside and the propellers of the left engine. The aircraft eventually came to a halt on the left side strip of the runway. There were no injuries reported among the crew, and no fire broke out during the incident.
Findings
- The primary cause of the incident was the structural failure of the left main landing gear shock strut components, specifically the separation of the inner and outer cylinders.