CHI04LA199 · Rockwell 114

The airplane sustained substantial damage when the right main landing gear collapsed during landing rollout. The pilot reported that he flew a stabilized full flaps approach with all three green landing gear lights illuminated. He reported that the main landing gear touched down smoothly but when the nose wheel touched down, the right wing started to drop. The pilot kept the right wing up as long as possible, but it settled to the runway when the airspeed slowed. The airplane veered off the left side of the runway. The inspection of the airplane revealed that the upper side brace of the right main landing gear (p/n 45304-2) was fractured through the upper arm at approximately mid-length. An inspection of the fracture surfaces revealed that at one corner of the surface, there was a black region approximately 0.2 inch by 0.2 inch in size. The black region was a casting defect (inclusion). A dark gray region below the casting defect was observed by the use of a scanning electron microscope. The lack of ductile dimples, the multiple ratcheting marks, the difference in color, the fracture plane angle, and the flatness of features at the origin area indicate that the dark gray region below the casting defect was consistent with fatigue cracking. The casting defect region and the fatigue region together consumed approximately 10% of the cross-sectional area of the upper side brace." A search of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Service Difficulty Reporting System (SDRS) was made for similar reported failures. There were no records pertaining to the Rockwell 114 main landing gear side brace for part numbers 45304-2 or 45306-2.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset