CHI06LA262 · Cessna 310P
Cessna 310P · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during landing
From Shelby-Cleveland County Regional Airport (EHO) to Kennett Memorial Airport (TKX)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI06LA262
- 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
- Accident
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- General aviation
- 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 310P
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N5858M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shelby-Cleveland County Regional Airport (EHO), Shelby, NCTo Kennett Memorial Airport (TKX), Kennett, MO
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Landing gear, main gear strut scissors › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was substantially damaged when the left main landing gear torque links separated during landing. The airplane subsequently departed the left side of the runway and came to rest approximately 1,250 feet from the approach end. A skid mark began about 400 feet from the end of the runway. The mark was left of the runway centerline and began as a straight skid mark. It then transitioned to a weaving or wavy pattern. The wavy pattern was approximately 60 feet long. Examination of the airframe revealed that the left main landing gear torque links had separated at the center hinge point and the wheel assembly was rotated 180 degrees. The washers installed under the bolt head at the pivot hinge did not conform to the washers specified by the airframe manufacturer's maintenance manual and service bulletin. The installed washer outside diameter measured approximately 0.560 inch. The through hole in the torque links measured 0.562 inch. Washers with an outside diameter of 0.750 inch were specified. The undersized washers allowed the bolt and bushing stack-up to pull through the upper torque link. The lower landing gear strut and wheel assembly were then free to rotate out of alignment with the upper strut. Review of the aircraft maintenance records revealed that new torque link shafts and bearings were installed on the left main landing gear assembly in August 2000, at 3,060 hours total airframe time. The most recent annual inspection was completed on February 14, 2006, at 3,316 hours total airframe time. An entry noting compliance with the service bulletin was not observed in the maintenance log.
Probable cause
Separation of the left main landing gear torque link during landing resulting in a loss of control and runway excursion. Contributing factors were a failure to comply with the airframe manufacturer's service bulletin, and the pilot's inability to maintain directional control after the torque link separation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI06LA262
- Event ID
- 20061016X01524
- Case number
- CHI06LA262
- 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, coordinates. 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: 4cd8777444872788731728fe17a7f36a9ea3918e6a9782d35e295340123c9e4e; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:26:13.899Z.