Amateur-built RUTAN DEFIANT N770JL accident near Morristown, New Jersey

Probable cause

A collapse of the nose landing gear due to wear in the landing gear extension system.

NTSB analysis

The experimental amateur-built airplane was landing after an uneventful personal flight. While landing on a runway, the retractable nose landing gear collapsed, the rudder that was mounted on the bottom of the fuselage contacted the runway pavement, substantially damaging it.

Postaccident examination of the nose landing gear system revealed that the bottom of the down lock was worn (beveled). When the nose wheel landing gear was extended, the bottom of the down lock, which hooked over a pivot shaft to lock the landing gear down, contacted the pivot shaft around the area of the centerline and did not extend past the centerline of the pivot shaft. Drawings of the assembly’s normal functions indicated that the down lock could move and unlock the landing gear when the assembly was under load. At the time of the accident, the airplane had accumulated about 1,338 landings. Given this information, it is likely that the wear to the nose landing gear down lock allowed the nose landing gear to collapse during the landing.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA17LA054 for the full record.