DH3 Otter Sept 4, 2022

[tdracer]

Originally Posted by punkalouver

Typical for mainstream media, embarrassing for a magazine like Aviation Week. Based on their publication coverage, I suspect they have new, fashionable hiring practices that lead to this. Not so bad when it is a picture in an airplane magazine, how do you like it for your pilots.

Ask Atlas Air about their Houston 767 crash.

I just clicked the link, and Av Week appears to have discovered and corrected their error (different picture than shown above).

Maybe the editors take a peak here - some pretty knowledgeable fact checkers on PPRuNe...

[tdracer]

Preliminary Report with Suspected Cause

NTSB has released a preliminary cause for the DHC-3 crash. The horizontal tail actuator had become disconnected - not failed - disconnected.

They said the separation of this component occurred when a clamp nut that should have been fixed in place by a circular wire lock ring unthreaded and rotated.The NTSB said that while the lock ring was not located in the wreckage, they found that three of five holes drilled in the clamp nut to accept the lock ring were damaged “such that they would not allow for the full insertion of the lock ring.”

“This suggests that it may be possible for a lock ring to be partially installed … not fully seated in a hole in the clamp nut,” the NTSB said. “Further, it might be difficult to visually determine if the lock ring is fully engaged in the clamp nut hole” depending on conditions such as lighting, viewing angle and the presence of dirt or grease.

Whidbey seaplane crash investigators identify possible cause | The Seattle Times

[India Four Two]

https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-rele...R20221024.aspx

I’m currently visiting my daughter in Victoria BC. It’s ironic that I discovered this press release just after I had been down to Harbour Air’s dock to get my floatplane fix.

[Lake1952]

The NTSB has released 500 pages of its investigation into this accident a year ago...the final report not finished yet.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/l...e-46d4a5925234

[tdracer]

Good, fairly in-depth (for a 'civilian' newspaper) article on the suspected cause:
NTSB probe of Whidbey floatplane crash points to likely cause, fix | The Seattle Times

Videos of lab tests conducted by the NTSB released Friday show that the lock ring securing the two parts of the actuator can disengage when the clamp nut at the top is tightened.

Also an interesting 'belt and suspenders" fix being implemented by Friday Harbor Seaplanes in the aftermath.