What happened
On 24 September 2005, a Luton Minor, registration G-ATKH, was involved in an accident at Laddingford Airfield, Kent, during a private flight. The pilot, who was performing his first flight on this specific aircraft type, was conducting a local flight following a briefing by the aircraft owner. During an approach to Runway 11, the aircraft experienced a stall approximately 10 feet above the runway surface. This resulted in a heavy and short landing.
During the impact, the right wheel stub axle failed, causing the right wheel to detach from the aircraft. The resulting sequence of events led to the aircraft coming to rest on the lower part of the engine cowling. The impact caused damage to the propeller, the cowling, and the associated landing gear structure. The pilot escaped the incident without any injuries.
The investigation
The AAIB conducted a metallurgical examination of the failed right wheel stub axle. The investigation focused on determining whether the failure was due to a progressive mechanism, such as fatigue or stress corrosion, or a single-event overload. The examination also reviewed historical data regarding similar failures in the Luton Minor type, including a 1994 incident involving a similar axle failure.
Findings
- The right wheel stub axle failed across its diameter near the inner face of the brake drum attachment plate.
- The failure was caused by overload bending resulting from the heavy landing.
- Metallurgical analysis revealed that the axle's strength had been reduced due to poor quality welding, which had caused tube wall thinning and weld burn-through.
- While some corrosion pitting was present, it was not a contributing factor to the separation.
- The investigation confirmed that the failure was not caused by a progressive mechanism like fatigue.