What happened
On 14 August 2004, a Rutan Long-Ez, registration G-BMUG, was performing a private flight when an incident occurred during the landing phase at RAF Kinloss in Morayshire, Scotland. As the aircraft was landing, the nose wheel assembly detached from the airframe. The detached component bounced upward into the propeller, causing damage to both the propeller and the nose wheel.
There were no injuries to the pilot during the event.
The investigation
The investigation focused on the mechanical failure of the nose wheel assembly. It was established that the nose wheel bearing had seized during a period of taxiing prior to the landing. This seizure caused significant heat to build up within the assembly. The investigators determined that this thermal buildup led to a failure in the bond between the metal and glass components of the nose wheel joint.
Furthermore, the investigation revealed that while the design of the nose wheel bearing had been updated in response to previous failures, the aircraft involved, G-BMUG, had not been upgraded with the modified bearing design.
Findings
- The primary cause of the incident was the failure of the bonding between the glass and metal joint of the nose wheel assembly.
- This failure was triggered by excessive heat generated by a seized bearing during taxiing.
- The aircraft was not equipped with the improved nose wheel bearing design implemented following previous similar incidents.