Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Bush Intercontinental Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Houston, Texas 77001
Thursday, January 3, 2002 4:46 CST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
After a normal touchdown and rollout, the 747 cargo airplane exited the runway onto a high-speed taxiway. The captain, noticed that the airplane was "dragging," to the right. The need for additional power for taxi seemed too great, so the crew stopped taxi and applied the parking brake. On-site examination revealed the right outboard main landing gear trunnion was completely fractured and separated several inches inboard of the aft trunnion bearing. Further visual inspection of the fractured area showed evidence of corrosion and what appeared to be a pre-existing crack on the upper portion of the outer cylinder of the trunnion and a metallurgical examination showed evidence of stress corrosion cracking (SCC). The inspection criteria outlined in Airworthiness Directive (AD) repalc90-06-18 R1 required the operator to perform a visual inspection, or a visual plus eddy current inspection of the wing landing gear at the trunnion, for cracks and corrosion. The inspection criteria outlined in AD 2001-17-25 required the operator to perform a detailed visual inspection using a bore scope to find cracking and corrosion of the aft trunnion outer cylinders of the wing landing gear, within 180 days from October 3, 2001. According to the operator's records, the bore scope inspection had not been performed, as per the AD, it was not due until April 3, 2002. Historical review of Service Difficulty Reports (SDR's) revealed 19 occurrences of SCC associated with corrosion of the aft trunnion outer cylinder stressed areas. Due to these SDR data, the manufacturer issued ASB 747-32A2465 revision 1, which was mandated by a new FAA AD 2001-17-25. AD 2001-17-25 included a bore scope inspection of the affected area of the trunnion due to the fact that the propagation of SCC cracking was internal on the cylinder and not readily detected by visual or eddy current methods as per the original AD 90-06-18 R1.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of the aft trunnion outer cylinder. A factor was the inadequate inspection criteria of the Airworthiness Directive to detect pre-existing SCC.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Incident |
| Event Date | 1/3/2002 |
| Event Day of the Week | Thursday |
| Time of Event | 446 |
| Event Time Zone | Central Standard Time |
| Event City | Houston |
| Event State | TEXAS |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 77001 |
| Event Date Year | 2002 |
| Event Date Month | 1 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 295849N |
| Event Location Longitude | 0952023W |
| Event Location Airport | Bush Intercontinental Airport |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | IAH |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Full |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 353 Central Standard Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | IAH |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 97 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | CST |
| Lighting Conditions | Night |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | -3 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -7 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 0 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 0 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 0 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30.45 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 3 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 17159 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jan 3 2002 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1600 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jan 27 2005 3:52PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\JOHB |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Houston, Texas |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | F-GCBG |
| NTSB Number | FTW02IA061 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 129: Foreign |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | Yes |
| Damage | Minor |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Boeing |
| Aircraft Model | 747-228F |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 22939 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 285762 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | Foreign Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 3 |
| Number of Engines | 4 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | AAIP |
| Date of Last Inspection | Nov 27 2001 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 377 |
| Airframe Hours | 81124 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | AIR FRANCE |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | Siege Sociale 45 rue de |
| Aircraft Owner City | Paris |
| Aircraft Owner State | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Country | FR |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 95747 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | -- |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | -- |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | UTA3 |
| Owner has at least one certificate | -- |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | International |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Cargo |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | -- |
| Second Pilot on Board | -- |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | MMEX |
| Departure City | Mexico City |
| Departure State | -- |
| Departure Country | MX |
| Departure Time | 245 |
| Departure Time Zone | CST |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | KIAH |
| Destination City | Houston |
| Destination State | TX |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Landing |
| Report sent to ICAO? | Yes |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | -- |
| User who most recently changed record | -- |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 15L |
| Runway Length | 12001 |
| Runway Width | 150 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |