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Microstructure Modifications due to Abusive Grinding Resulted in Unexpected Catastrophic Failure of Main Landing Gear in Civilian Aircraft

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Abstract

The chain events which lead to this failure, started with the fact that prior to takeoff, flight and ground crew of a Boeing airplane heard a loud noise that sounded like a strong impact, accompanied by a certain lateral and vertical movement of the aircraft. After a normal takeoff, a "GEAR DISAGREE" message was displayed during main landing gear (MLG) retraction and the left MLG was "DOWN" but not locked by two braces. The crew decided to return and landed safely. The MLG was inspected, and the back side arm was found broken. This MLG failure occurred after 160 landings from the overhaul process. The MLG structural material was a high-strength low-alloy steel 4340 with hardness of 50–55 RC. The failure analysis has been performed under the supervision of chief investigator from the Ministry of transport, included visual inspection, micro-hardness, macro- and micro-etching, fluorescent particle inspection (FPI), fracture modes classification, Barkhausen mapping, hydrogen content and chemical analysis. Based on the findings, it was drawn that abusive grinding during the overhaul process was responsible for this early fracture. The results pointed out on the possible embrittlement oriented mechanism which causes for both the cracking initiation and propagations stages. Stress corrosion cracking and/or, hydrogen embrittlement and fatigue, were considered to be the failure mechanisms. The current paper highlights the failure mechanism based on the findings reported in metallurgical reports. The dominance of intergranular fracture near the fracture surface pointed out that some microstructure changes which have been occurring during the grinding process that in retrospect was found to be very abusive based on the macro-etching and on the FPI inspection.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank to former Attorney Itzhak Raz (Razchik), Chief Investigator of Aviation Incidents & Accidents Investigations at the Ministry of Transport-State in Israel, to Prof. Roni Shneck from Ben-Gurion University-Israel and to Prof. Kobi Bortman from the 3F company, that allow me to use their reports with fruitful discussion on the failure analysis of the fractured MLG of civilian aircraft. Finally to Mr. Igal Alon from the Nuclear Research Center Negev for experimental assistance during the present investigation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Arie Bussiba

  2. Institute of Failure Analysis®, Ruppin College, Campus Emek-Hefer, Regional Council, Netanya, Israel

    Meir Kendler

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  1. Arie Bussiba
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Correspondence to Arie Bussiba.

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Bussiba, A., Kendler, M. Microstructure Modifications due to Abusive Grinding Resulted in Unexpected Catastrophic Failure of Main Landing Gear in Civilian Aircraft. J Fail. Anal. and Preven. 23, 671–681 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-023-01601-2

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