Amateur-built SA105 N320WJ accident near New Smyrna Beach, Florida

Probable cause

The failure of the nose landing gear wooden attachment/support structure, which resulted in collapse of the nose landing gear during taxi. Contributing to the accident was the improper design of the nose landing gear attachment structure.

NTSB analysis

The ground controller instructed the pilot to taxi the airplane to the active runway. The pilot stated that the taxiway that he was instructed to taxi on was “very rough,” so he elected to taxi the airplane in the grass as he had done several times before. When the nose gear came in contact with the grass area, the pilot heard a loud noise, and the nose landing gear collapsed. An examination of the wreckage revealed that the airplane’s wood structure fractured at the nose gear assembly attachment location, which ripped through the bottom fuselage area under the rudder pedals section. After the wood structure of the nose gear assembly fractured, the surrounding structure was unable to support the load on the nose landing gear, which resulted in the nose landing gear collapse. According to a mechanic who performed work on the airplane, the wooden design of the airplane was not able to support the loads for that type of landing gear system.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA12LA296 for the full record.