Gentlemen,
After compiling a list of at least twenty (20) suspected in flight breakups of Piper Senecas, as well as having had an ownership interest in two of the aircraft on the list. I hypothesize the following. The root cause of the breakups has absolutely nothing to do with the crappy design of the nose baggage compartment door and its latch mechanism. Nor does the seam delamination of the aging fiberglass surrounding the Ruby Goldberg tubing arrangement supporting the the nose wheel.
NTSB needs to look inside the nose baggage compartment and take a real close look at the latches that hold down the nose wheel inspection cover. These are the very same latches that were used on lunch box covers in the early sixties! That right, the lunch boxes that Mickey Ann Minnie mouse pictures on them!
How about this scenario, a partially open nose gear door (set of clamshell doors), with nose wheel in transit, creates a Venturi effect that that initially causes a vacuum in the nose compartment, followed closely by ram air as nose gear deploys, which causes compression of the entire fiberglass shell which covers the Rube Goldberg tubing arrangement. Numerous accident photos show stress cracks at the nose baggage door cover suggesting that it was pushed from the inside out! Others show clear delamination of the seam in the fiberglass from inside out pressures! Several of the accident photos show such a violent blowout of the nose baggage door that the latch mechanism end up wrapped around the hub of the left propeller!
How does this cause the airplane to come apart? Depending which side comes apart first, the empennage on that side simply stops working, which results in stabilator failure. Look at the pictures, guys! When the empennage fails, depending oh the speed of the aircraft at the time, you have negative g wing spar failure. Again, look at the pictures! Do not forget to look at the autopsy reports, often you will find that occupants wearing shoulder straps are very telling.
Ren Crete
Senecacrash.com
