The National Transportation Safety Board Preliminary Report (posted below) on the Jan. 2 crash of a Vans RV-10 in Fullerton, California, confirms earlier reports that multiple witnesses observed the pilot’s side clamshell door swinging open on takeoff. The report further reveals that Vans sent the builder-owner a retrofit kit for a secondary door latch in January 2010, but the latch was never installed.
The builder-owner received the kit components for the full aircraft between 2007 and 2008, completing construction in 2011. According to the NTSB, installing the secondary latch kit “was recommended before further flight as described in Service Bulletin 10-1-4, published by Vans Aircraft on January 4, 2010.”
The accident flight departed from Fullerton Airport (KFUL) around 2 p.m. local time. While the aircraft was in the runup area, security video shows the door was in the down position, but not flush with the fuselage. A witness near the departure end of the departure Runway 24 reported seeing the aircraft pass right to left, and saw the door swing open at approximately 100 feet above ground level. He then saw an arm reach up and pull the door down.
Shortly after, the pilot transmitted “immediate landing required,” initially saying he would land in the opposite direction on Runway 6. But he then entered a left downwind for Runway 24. The four-seat aircraft crashed into the roof of a furniture warehouse on the base leg, killing the pilot and his passenger (his teenage daughter) and injuring 20 workers in the warehouse. Multiple pilot witnesses reported they saw a “panel-like” white piece fall from the aircraft—adding that it “floated” or “fluttered” to the roof of the warehouse, coming to rest largely intact about 150 feet short of the main impact site.
According to the NTSB report, “The door handle was found just short of the forward closed and locked position, and because it was not fully forward, its locking button had not engaged. The lock pins were found extended about 1/2 inch out of the door ends, and when the door handle was tested by moving it forward, the pins extended a further 7/16 inch and the locking button engaged.”
The builder-owner had also modified the door-unsafe warning system. The NTSB Preliminary Report included: “On the accident airplane, it appeared that only two [of four] reed switches had been installed, with each mounted to the aft pillars of both doors. As such, the modified system would not have warned the pilot if the forward latch pins had failed to fully engage.”
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