Investigation into crash of small jet owned by Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil prompts urgent NTSB recommendation
By Alexandra Skores, CNN
Washington (CNN) — The investigation into the crash of a Learjet, owned by Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil, has prompted the National Transportation Safety Board to issue an urgent recommendation to make sure similar planes’ landing gear are “securely attached.”
On February 10, Neil’s Learjet 35A was landing at Scottsdale Airport in Arizona when the left main landing gear separated and the jet veered across a gravel safety area, slamming into a parked Gulfstream G200 jet.
The captain of the Neil’s plane was killed, and the first officer was injured. The rockstar was not on the jet, but his girlfriend and her friend were onboard and were injured, along with someone inside the parked plane.
In a preliminary report, the board found a pin in the landing gear support was not correctly inserted far enough when it was installed months before.
Wednesday, the NTSB issued an urgent recommendation asking the FAA to require certain Learjet operators to check that all landing gear are attached properly. Bombardier, the company that makes the planes, had called for inspections of more than 1,800 Learjets, but only 12% were checked, prompting the NTSB recommendation.
The board investigates crashes and can make recommendations, but only the Federal Aviation Administration has the authority to mandate inspections. The FAA decided in July not to issue an airworthiness directive requiring the pins be checked.
“We believe the FAA’s decision not to issue an AD is incommensurate with the longstanding aviation safety risk associated with misassembly of Learjet main landing gear,” the NTSB said in a report, calling the decision “particularly difficult to justify in view of the imminent risk of loss of life from a similar accident.”
The NTSB noted three prior incidents, dating to 1995, where the landing gear of similar aircraft collapsed or separated because pins were not fully inserted properly.
The FAA has not yet responded to the recommendation.
The February crash came after two weeks of deadly aircraft accidents, including a fatal midair collision near Washington, DC that killed 67 people;, the crash of a medevac jet in Philadelphia, which killed seven; and a crash near Nome, Alaska, that claimed the lives of all 10 people on board a commuter flight.
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