USAir Fokker F28-MK-0100 F28-MK-010 incident
Fokker F28-MK-0100 F28-MK-010 · Incident: main gear collapsed during landing
From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93IA070
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Incident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Fokker F28-MK-0100 F28-MK-010
- Aircraft type
- Fokker F28
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N867US
- Operator
- USAir
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TNTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 121: Air Carrier
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing · landing roll
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Main gear collapsed
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Company/operator management › Information unclear
- Manufacturer › Information unclear
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Pittsburgh, PA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER TOUCHDOWN AT MEMPHIS, TN, A SEVERE VIBRATION WAS FELT BY THE FLIGHTCREW IN THE COCKPIT. THE FLIGHTCREW THOUGHT THE VIBRATION WAS GENERATED BY THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR SO THEY HAD MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL CHECK THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR. NO ANOMALIES WERE NOTED. THE FLIGHT CONTINUED TO PITTSBURGH, PA, AND SHORTLY AFTER TOUCHDOWN, THE LEFT MAIN GEAR COLLAPSED. POST INCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE LEFT MAIN GEAR REVEALED THAT TWO SPACERS IN THE TORQUE LINK ASSEMBLY WERE FOUND TO HAVE BEEN IMPROPERLY INSTALLED. THE INVESTIGATION ALSO REVEALED THAT DURING RE INSTALLATION OF THE TORQUE LINKS AND SHIMMY DAMPER AT THE LAST MAINTENANCE CHECK, THE TWO SPACERS WERE INSTALLED IN REVERSE OF THEIR NORMAL POSITIONS. ACCORDING TO FOKKER, REVERSAL OF THE TWO SPACERS WOULD RESULT IN AN UNDAMPED FREE PLAY BETWEEN THE UPPER AND LOWER TORQUE LINK RESULTING IN OSCILLATIONS IN THE LATERAL MODE OF THE LANDING GEAR. REVIEW OF USAIR'S AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE MANUAL, SUPPLIED BY FOKKER, REVEALED THAT THE TWO SPACERS THAT WERE INCORRECTLY INSTALLED ON THE INCIDENT AIRPLANE WERE NOT DESCRIBED BY DIMENSIONS OR VERBIAGE.
Probable cause
THE IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF THE SPACERS BY THE MECHANIC AND THE UNCLEAR INFORMATION SUPPLIED FROM THE MANUFACTURER AND OPERATOR REGARDING THE INSTALLATION OF THE SPACERS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93IA070
- Event ID
- 20001211X12295
- Case number
- BFO93IA070
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d3e2d450b71aa58d705489ce6b80ca334476fd86c545ce04b168ab26b0ee0459; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:36:20.077Z.