Beech E-55 incident near Key West, Florida, March 31, 2007
On March 31, 2007 at about 2:38 pm local time, a Beech E-55, registered N25612, suffered minor damage in an incident near Key West, Florida (Key West Intl airport). It was a personal flight under general aviation rules (Part 91). No one was hurt; 2 people were on board or involved. The weather was visual conditions (good weather).
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The NTSB's probable cause their words, unchanged
Failure of the nose landing gear drag brace due to overload during landing rollout for undetermined reasons. Contributing to the accident was the airplane had not been modified with an improved nose landing gear drag brace.
Source: NTSB aviation accident database, copy made September 29, 2026. Docket and reports at the NTSB.
What the record shows
- Date
- March 31, 2007 · about 2:38 pm local time
- Place
- Key West, Florida · Key West Intl · map
- Type
- Incident
- Injuries
- No one was hurt; 2 people were on board or involved.
- Weather
- visual conditions (good weather)
- Aircraft
- Beech E-55 · all E-55s on the register
- Registration
- N25612 · registry record · serial TE-897
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Flight
- Personal flight · general aviation rules (Part 91)
The NTSB's narrative final · quoted from the NTSB record
The pilot stated that when he extended the landing gear on final approach he received a green gear down light. During landing rollout the nose landing gear collapsed. Examination of the airplane after the incident by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspectors showed the nose landing gear torque link had failed, causing the nose landing gear to collapse. Metallurgical examination of the nose landing gear drag brace was performed at the National Transportation Safety Board Materials Laboratory. The examination showed the drag brace had fractured in the tubing; at a point just forward of the right attach point. The fracture faces displayed surfaces that were inclined at approximately 45-degrees to the axis of the separated portion of the tubing, consistent with an overload event. The incident airplane was manufactured in January 1973. A representative from Hawker-Beechcraft stated that beginning in model year 1978, an improved nose landing gear drag brace was incorporated into new production airplanes. Beech also issued service kit 35-4012-1 S, which allowed for upgrade of earlier model E-55 airplanes with the improved nose landing gear drag brace. The representative stated that pictures of the failed drag brace from the accident airplane shows it was not the improved drag brace. Maintenance personnel for the incident airplane owner stated that a review of airplane logbook records show no evidence that the drag brace had been changed in the life of the airplane and that the failed drag brace appeared to be the original supplied with the airplane from the factory.
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About this page
Everything above comes from the NTSB's public accident database: the narrative, probable cause and findings are the NTSB's own words, and the coded tables behind its report (pilot, aircraft, flight, weather, injuries, sequence of events) are written out in plain English. Pilots' ages, home towns and medical details are left out on purpose. The docket at the NTSB holds the report as a PDF and the investigation's photographs and documents. This site never names pilots, passengers or anyone else involved. A preliminary report describes what is known soon after the event and can change; the final report, with the probable cause, usually follows one to two years later and this page is refreshed when it does. Case number MIA07IA080.