Hughes 300C clusters.
Hughes 300C
I wonder if I can ask the knowledgable Lu Zuckerman or another similarly qualified engineer to give an opinion on the series of cluster failures which affected the early Hughes 300's. Serial number 570 and prior.
I think it is common knowledge that the year 2000 failure to my son's Hughes 300C was one of a series of such failures to the part number 234 (left hand) cluster. (clevis lug) The UK AAIB reported it was the seventh such failure since 1972. In fact my own researches uncovered two more making nine in all.
My question is ... at what point should the certifying authority, (in this case the FAA) have effectively grounded the type and mandated the replacement of the later part no 234-3 ?? ... instead of continueing with the policy of releasing ongoing Ad's, SB's LTO's etc. Following the first occurrence, the second, the fifth sixth or at all.
Earlier this year, this mod was mandated and I trust that all the affected airframes have been modified. I'm sure that the position is well known in the UK, but as time goes on and people change, things get forgotten. I know for sure there are some relevent airframes lying around in hangars which one day may be brought back into service. A point well made by the AAIB's report.
The draft report cited two of the causal reasons for my son's accident as. "Failure to mandate the fitting of the modified cluster etc .... combined with an over reliance of a strategy of repetitve inspections .... etc.
But just to return to my question. At what point would this industry consider a responsible certification authority should act once it became apparent that the issued AD's etc were not proving effective ?? A big question indeed. Any help so much appreciated.l