Microlight crash inquiry shows up fatigue fracture (From Warrington Guardian)

Microlight crash inquiry shows up fatigue fracture

AN investigation into the crash-landing of a microlight in a South Cheshire field has sparked a national safety check on similar aircraft.

Crash investigators pinpointed a faulty 'snoot' as the cause of the accident at Arclid in Sandbach at around 7pm on August 15, when the craft's nose dug into the ground on landing.

The smash, at a landing strip on the Arclid Industrial Estate, left the pilot Alexander Shaw with serious stomach injuries, for which he was treated in Leighton Hospital's high dependency unit.

His passenger, who has not been named, was also taken to the Crewe hospital with severe spinal injuries.

As a result of a crash enquiry, an official Air Accident Investigation Branch report makes new safety recommendations for the type of aircraft.

The report says the Puma Sprint microlight, owned by Mr Shaw of Crewe Road, Alsager, had taken off in good conditions from its home airfield at Egerton Green for the local flight to Sandbach.

The 70-year-old pilot, who had 374 hours flying experience, initially touched down on the rear wheels, but as the nose wheel of the aircraft touched the landing strip the little aircraft flipped over leaving the pilot and passenger injured and the microlight beyond repair.

Investigators revealed that the nose wheel assembly had failed as a result of a fatigue fracture of the 'snoot', a forward extension of the keel tube framework of the aircraft.

The report said as a result the nose wheel assembly became detached from the craft, causing it to roll over.

Investigators looking into the incident described it as an accident waiting to happen.

They said the fatigue crack had grown from a weld defect and that while airborne it had developed to a 'critical length' where it could no longer take the load of landing.

The report recommends that maintenance procedures in respect of this part of these aircraft should now be reviewed by the company responsible and that these parts should be checked on similar aircraft as soon as possible for similar cracks.