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BFO88IA001

1987-10-03 · BALTIMORE, Maryland, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport BWI

N288N has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (HAZELBROOK RE BIPLANE), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

THE ACFT HAD A MAIN GEAR ONLY LANDING AFTER THE NOSE GEAR FAILED TO LOCK DOWN. THIS WAS THE FIRST FLIGHT SINCE A NEWLY OVERHAULED NOSE GEAR WAS INSTALLED. IT WAS DETERMINED THAT WHEN THE NOSE GEAR WAS INSTALLED AND BEFORE IT WAS CORRECTED, A WRONG WASHER WAS USED WITH A BOLT TO INSTALL PART OF THE DOWNLOCK MECHANISM. THIS RESULTED IN AN UNDETECTED PERMANENT REDUCTION, BELOW THE DESIGN CLEARANCE BETWEEN THE DOWNLOCK PLUNGER AND ITS INTERNAL-BEARING. EXAMINATION OF THE DOWNLOCK AFTER THE LANDING INCIDENT DISCLOSED THAT THERE WAS SCORING OF THE PLUNGER AND ITS BEARING. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1987_BFO88IA001.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

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