Cirrus SR20 N475DA incident near Sanford, Florida

Probable cause

A failure of the nose landing gear strut weldment.

NTSB analysis

While practicing takeoffs and landings with a student, the flight instructor noted a "shimmy" in the nose landing gear during the first three landings, but did not think it was out of the ordinary. During the fourth landing, the student pilot "did not flare enough, which resulted in a three-point landing" and a subsequent "porpoise" of the airplane. The airplane bounced two or three times before he took control of the airplane and taxied clear of the runway. During the next landing, performed by the instructor, the nose landing gear collapsed. Postincident inspections conducted by the operator revealed that the nose landing gear strut weldment had cracked. The incident prompted the flight school to inspect their entire fleet of Cirrus SR20 airplanes, of which nine others exhibited cracking in the same location as the incident airplane. The airframe manufacturer subsequently issued a service bulletin mandating inspections of the nose landing gear strut for cracking. The service bulletin outlined the procedures to detect cracking, and specified corrective action that included replacement of the nose landing gear strut with a redesigned part if cracking over 0.19 inches was observed.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for NYC08IA206 for the full record.