PIPER PA-44-180

Full Narrative

On August 1, 2012, about 1715 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-44-180, N740FT, operated by Space Coast Aviation, was substantially damaged when the nose landing gear collapsed during landing at the Space Coast Regional Airport (TIX), Titusville, Florida. The flight instructor, a private pilot, and a passenger were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan had been filed for the flight that departed Merritt Island Airport (COI), Merritt Island, Florida. The instructional flight was conducted under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91.

According to the flight instructor, the airplane had various landing gear issues during the week prior to the accident, which included a faulty nose gear indicator light the day prior. While practicing instrument landing system approaches at TIX, the nose gear indicator light did not indicate down and locked; however, the flight instructor observed that the nose gear was extended. He cycled the landing gear without any changes to the nose gear indicator light and subsequently attempted to land on runway 36. The airplane initially touched down on the main landing gear; however, as the nose landing gear touched down, it began to collapse. The airplane came to rest about 2,500 feet from the approach end of the runway, and sustained substantial damage to the fuselage around the nose gear.

Postaccident examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that the nose landing gear eccentric bushing, which engaged the downlock hook was out-of-adjustment. In addition, a check of the hydraulic system fluid reservoir dipstick revealed that the fluid level was below an amount that could be observed on the dipstick. After the hydraulic system fluid reservoir was properly serviced and the eccentric bushing adjusted, the landing gear functioned normally.

According to company maintenance records, the airplane had been operated for about 10 hours since its most recent 100 hour inspection, which was performed on July 20, 2012. In addition, the accident flight was the airplane's first flight after it was released from maintenance which included a landing gear inspection and operational check.