The student pilot was practicing touch and goes in a Cessna 152 in College Station, Texas. The first two were normal. During the third landing, the airplane touched down on the main landing gear, and, as the pilot brought the nose down, the nosewheel collapsed.
The student pilot was not injured.
The post-accident examination of the failed nose landing gear fork revealed a final overload fracture of the fork, starting at a fatigue crack at the upper shoulder of the fork, which had apparently propagated for a period of time before the final fracture. The material used to manufacture the fork met the specified engineering requirements.
The NTSB determined the probable cause of the accident as the failure of the nose landing gear fork during landing due to fatigue.
NTSB Identification: CEN13LA209
This March 2013 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
