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Airways International Cessna 402C incident

1 Mar 1992 · Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States

Cessna 402C · Incident: nose gear collapsed during landing

From Miami International Airport (MIA) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
MIA92IA090
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
Charter & commuter
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

Cessna 402C

Aircraft type
Cessna 402
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
N6786C
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, FLTo 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
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
Nose 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, overhaul, improper
  • Gear down and locked › Inaccurate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE NOSE LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED AFTER IT WAS LOWERED TO THE RWY DURING THE LANDING ROLL. EXAM OF THE NOSE LANDING GEAR ASSY BY AN FAA MAINTENANCE INSPECTOR INDICATED THAT THE NOSE LANDING GEAR ACTUATOR WAS NOT DAMAGED. IT WAS REMOVED FOR EXAM. DISASSEMBLY REVEALED THAT AN EXTRA PACKING (SIMILAR TO AN O-RING) WAS INSTALLED. THIS ALLOWED THE NOSE LANDING GEAR DOWN AND LOCKED LIGHT TO ILLUMINATE BUT SHUT THE MOTOR OFF BEFORE THE NOSE LANDING GEAR WAS FULLY EXTENDED. REVIEW OF THE AIRPLANE LOGBOOKS INDICATE THAT A PROGRESSIVE INSPECTION WAS SIGNED OFF TWO DAYS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. DURING THE INSPECTION IT WAS NOTED THAT THE NOSE LANDING GEAR ACTUATOR SWITCH WAS LEAKING. THE CORRECTIVE ACTION INDICATES THAT THE O-RINGS WERE REPLACED. ACCORDING TO THE ILLUSTRATED PARTS LIST OF THE NOSE LANDING GEAR ACTUATOR, TWO PACKINGS ARE INSTALLED. ACCORDING TO THE DIRECTOR OF MAINTENANCE, THE MECHANIC RESPONSIBLE FOR REPLACEMENT OF THE PACKINGS WAS PROVIDED WITH TWO, BUT ONLY REMOVED ONE FROM THE ACTUATOR. THIS RESULTED IN THE EXTRA PACKING. THE ACFT HAD ACCUMULATED 4 HRS & 6 CYCLES SINCE THE INSPECTION 2 DAYS EARLIER.

Probable cause

IMPROPER OVERHAUL BY COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL AND INACCURATE GEAR DOWN AND LOCKED INDICATION IN THE COCKPIT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA92IA090
Event ID
20001211X14332
Case number
MIA92IA090
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: f0045178d12d54d27cb74000327d2b9ff7db9692ee85fcb9da1823d34fba5181; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:48:00.275Z.