What happened
On 28 August 2000, a Grumman AA-5A, registration G-BDLO, was conducting a private flight at Elstree Aerodrome in Hertfordshire. Following a standard landing on Runway 26, the pilot was taxiing the aircraft along a grass taxiway running parallel to the runway. During this taxi phase, the nose landing gear leg partially collapsed. The resulting impact caused damage to the aircraft's propeller and the nosegear support structure.
The investigation
Investigators focused on the structural integrity of the nose gear assembly, which consists of a shaped cantilevered tube connected to a transverse torsion tube within the fuselage. Maintenance personnel who inspected the aircraft after the event identified a failure at the junction where these two tubes meet. There was a suspicion that the failure might have been caused by fatigue cracking resulting from corrosion. However, the investigation was hampered because the specific damaged components were accidentally discarded during the aircraft's repair process before they could be submitted to the AAIB for detailed examination.
Findings
- The collapse occurred during taxiing on a grass surface, not during the landing phase.
- No heavy landings or bounced landings were reported in this instance.
- A failure occurred at the junction of the cantilevered tube and the torsion tube.
- While this aircraft model has a history of nose landing gear failures, such incidents are typically attributed to overstressing the gear during landing; however, this was not the case here.