Cause of horror plane crash revealed
Authorities are urging owners of kit-built planes to conduct detailed inspections on their aircraft before taking flight after discovering what caused a horror light plane crash that claimed the life of a pilot.
In August 2021, an amateur-built Acroduster biplane was travelling from Caboolture airfield, north of Brisbane, when the aircraft began to fall apart.
The pilot and sole occupant sustained fatal injuries, while the aircraft was destroyed in mudflats near Bribie Island.
Witnesses reportedly saw the plane falling from the sky shortly after 9am on August 18, 2021, a Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman told NCA NewsWire at the time.
Since the horror crash, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) determined that two eye bolts and the left roll brace had failed during the flight due to “fatigue cracking” that it says triggered the break-up.
The ATSB has issued a safety notice to Acroduster aircraft owners, informing them that the issues on the aircraft that crashed likely wouldn’t have been identifiable during a standard inspection.
“In this accident, the fatigue cracks formed in an area of the eye bolts that were obscured by the securing nuts and threads of the eye bolts,” ATSB director transport safety Kerri Hughes said.
“This meant the cracks would not have likely been readily identifiable during standard maintenance inspections without disassembling the attachment points.
“Owners and maintainers of experimental amateur-built aircraft should consider conducting additional detailed inspections that exceed the minimum standards in areas of the aircraft that are critical to the safety of flight.”
The ATSB said other aviation authorities were notified of the fault, and the Federal Aviation Administration had issued notices to more than 280,000 web subscribers informing them of the issue.
“The ATSB welcomes these safety actions by authorities and the manufacturer in response to this accident,” Ms Hughes said.
