Serious incident McDonnell Douglas DC-8-73 (F) N803DH,
ASN logo
ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 314685
 
This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information. If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can submit corrected information.

Date:Thursday 7 January 2010
Time:05:00 LT
Type:Silhouette image of generic DC87 model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different    
McDonnell Douglas DC-8-73 (F)
Owner/operator:Astar Air Cargo Inc
Registration: N803DH
MSN: 46123/508
Year of manufacture:1970
Total airframe hrs:87107 hours
Engine model:CFM International CFM56/2C1
Fatalities:Fatalities: 0 / Occupants:
Aircraft damage: Minor
Category:Serious incident
Location:Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport, KY (CVG/KCVG) -   United States of America
Phase: Standing
Nature:Cargo
Departure airport:Miami International Airport, FL (MIA/KMIA)
Destination airport:Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport, KY (CVG/KCVG)
Investigating agency: NTSB
Confidence Rating: Accident investigation report completed and information captured
Narrative:
On January 7, 2010 Astar Air Cargo reported that during of a DC-8-73 hydraulic fluid leaking from a small crack at the upper end of the nose landing gear (NLG) cylinder. The following day, during taxi to the maintenance hangar, a loud bang was heard after a turn. Further inspection revealed that the NLG cylinder had fractured. The NLG was overhauled in April 2007 by AAR Landing Gear Services (LGS) in Miami Florida. The NLG was installed on the incident airplane on January 5, 2010 and had accumulated one ground air ground (GAG) cycle prior to the failure. The NLG assembly was removed and replaced and the failed cylinder was submitted to the Boeing Huntington Beach Failure Analysis Laboratory for failure analysis. At the time of the incident it was reported that the airplane had accumulated 86,911 flight hours and 32,212 cycles.

The NLG cylinder failed due to intergranular (IG) cracking at the inner surface of the cylinder coincidental to a chrome plating crack, then propagated by stress corrosion cracking. The plating crack was determined to be cleavage fracture and could have occurred during the grinding of the chrome plating to size. The fracture surfaces of the primary and secondary crack, each exhibited a combination of dark gray and orange-brown discoloration that extended to 0.95 and 0.85 inches, respectively, and towards the outer surface of the cylinder. A short distance from the outer surface of the cylinder, there was no observable discoloration on the fracture surface of the primary crack. The discoloration indicated that the fracture occurred over an unknown period of time. Etch inspection of the inner surface of the cylinder revealed evidence of circumferential grinding burns. Light circumferential scratches were also observed however their origin could not be determined.

Probable Cause: Failure of the NLG cylinder occurred by intergranular rupture; coincidental to a chrome plating crack. The failure origin occurred along the inner surface of the cylinder and then propagated by stress corrosion cracking to the outer surface. A secondary crack with the same features as the primary crack was found diagonal to the primary crack. Both cracks initiated by intergranular cracking due to grinding burns caused by abusive grinding and propagated by stress corrosion cracking. Hydrogen embrittlement did not contribute to the intergranular cracking.

Accident investigation:
cover
  
Investigating agency: NTSB
Report number: ENG10IA016
Status: Investigation completed
Duration: 1 year and 3 months
Download report: Final report

Sources:

NTSB ENG10IA016

Location

Revision history:

Date/timeContributorUpdates
02-Jun-2023 19:19 ASN Update Bot Added

Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description

The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:

CONNECT WITH US: FSF on social media FSF Facebook FSF Twitter FSF Youtube FSF LinkedIn FSF Instagram

©2024 Flight Safety Foundation

1920 Ballenger Av, 4th Fl.
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
www.FlightSafety.org