N539MT

According to the pilot of the tri-cycle landing gear-equipped airplane, he made a normal landing, but the airplane began to veer left of the centerline during the landing roll. He corrected with right rudder and heard a "thump" as if something affixed to the airplane was being dragged and the rudder steering became ineffective. He recalled that with constant hard right rudder input, coupled with dynamic braking, he turned the airplane to the right, the nose landing gear collapsed, and the airplane skidded to a stop. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the firewall.

The photographs provided by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Inspector revealed that the right steering rod end had failed. Photographs also revealed that the bolts of the nose gear firewall mount were pulled from the firewall. The nose gear assembly had rotated more than 90° to the left and was found underneath the fuselage.

The NTSB Investigator-in-charge asked that the two additional airplanes in the operator's inventory be inspected. The operator found that the steering rod ends of the inspected airplanes, were bent and showed signs of cracking between the threads. The steering bungees were visually inspected; however, they could not be thoroughly inspected without damaging the component.