N20617

On April 21, 2022, about 1120 Pacific daylight time, a Textron Aviation Inc. T206H, N20617, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Santa Barbara, California. The pilot and passenger were not injured. The airplane was operated under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight.

The pilot reported that while landing on runway 25, the left main landing gear touched down first, followed by the right main landing gear. As the nose wheel landing gear settled onto the runway, the airplane immediately veered to the right. Despite the pilot’s control inputs, the airplane veered left and right several times, and both wings struck the ground before the airplane “nosed up onto the prop and stopped.”

Postaccident examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that both wings were substantially damaged. The upper nose gear trunnion was found pulled away from its attach point. The outboard 6-8 inches of all three propeller blades were bent aft.

The upper portion of the nose gear shock strut containing the upper and lower trunnions were sent to the National Transportation Safety Board Materials Laboratory for further examination. The upper trunnion exhibited a damaged bolt hole where the right brace would be attached. The damage consisted of deformation and missing material consistent with shear tear out of the attachment bolt in a direction coincident with the long dimension of the brace. The fracture surface was smeared and did not yield any fractographic information. The deformation of the material was consistent with an overstress fracture. Additionally, the upper trunnion was slightly deformed, consistent with bending overstress.

The repair facility that repaired the airplane following the accident reported that during the repair nothing abnormal was found with the airplane’s nosewheel steering or flight controls.