Incident Overview
On Saturday, November 19, 2005, at 10:25 local time, a Piper PA-34-200 with registration EC-IHS experienced an incident during landing at Valencia Airport. The aircraft was operated by Airmed and was engaged in a general aviation instruction flight under dual command. The crew consisted of a commercial pilot instructor with 1,650 total hours (200 on type) and a student pilot holding a private license with 235 total hours (28 on type). A third passenger was also on board.
Sequence of Events
The aircraft had completed a training route from Valencia to Ibiza and back. Upon landing on runway 30, the nose gear contacted the pavement, but the crew observed the nose descending unexpectedly. The instructor took control, pulling back on the yoke to keep the nose up. As the aircraft decelerated, the elevator lost effectiveness, causing the nose to drop further until it struck the runway. Both propellers also impacted the pavement. The aircraft skidded on its forward fuselage and came to a stop at the left edge of the runway. All three occupants exited the aircraft unharmed.
Technical Investigation
Post-incident inspection revealed that the nose gear was almost fully retracted. The aircraft is equipped with a hydraulic tricycle landing gear system. The nose gear locking mechanism relies on an over-center lock held in place by a "down lock link" tensor. Investigators found that the over-center lock was not firmly secured, allowing the gear to retract under load.
Root Cause Analysis
The failure was attributed to two combined factors: insufficient length of the down lock link and deformation of the bolt connecting it to the retraction link. The bolt deformation was caused by bending stresses resulting from an improperly tightened fastener. Although the aircraft had undergone a 1,000-hour inspection in September 2005 where the component was disassembled and reinstalled, the deformation occurred subsequently due to inadequate torque application during that maintenance task.