A gear-selector lever that broke, forcing a light plane to make a wheels-up landing at Napier Airport on April 13, had been inspected just 10 days before, a report into the incident has found.
The the twin-engined six-seater Piper Aztec, owned by Hastings-based business New Zealand Aerial Mapping, was substantially damaged
after being forced to land on its belly.
Neither the pilot/instructor Colin Tayler, nor student pilot Iain Millar, was injured in the controlled emergency landing.
The Traffic Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) found the plane, built in 1965, had a pre-existing fatigue crack at a bend in the landing gear selector lever.
Even though the lever had been inspected 10 days and five flying hours earlier, the fatigue crack was not detected.
Similar faults had occurred previously in Piper Aztec planes, the report said.
One operator had experienced a failure just three weeks before the Napier incident, and another several years before.
"These three events occurring, despite regular visual inspections, suggested that such inspections were an unreliable means of detecting any cracking in the levers," the report said.
The TAIC reccommended the Civil Aviation Authorty require all Piper 23-250 Aztec owners replace the gear selector lever with a new, improved version "as soon as practicable".
