Accident to the Elixir registered F-HKEC on 14/02/2024 at La Rochelle

While re-assembling the elevator during a maintenance action, the mechanic very probably forgot to position the nut on the screw fitted through the ball joint connecting the vertical rod of the elevator control with the bellcrank in the base of the fin. In the absence of the nut, the screw was not held in place and came out of position during the second flight after this work. The stick became free in pitch due to the rod disconnecting from the bellcrank.

This disconnection occurred during the initial climb, between 3,000 and 3,500 ft with the aeroplane correctly trimmed. The aeroplane thus remained stable. The pilot noticed the abnormal situation when making a correction to the pitch attitude. He then checked that he could control the pitch attitude using the trim as recommended in the loss of elevator control procedure. The additional pilot transmitted an emergency message and asked to return to the aerodrome.

The pilot carried out the approach and landing without flaps at a speed of around 85 kt. On touching down, the aeroplane bounced. As the trim was in the nose-up position, the pilot believed that that he could not act quickly enough on the aeroplane’s attitude because of the trim’s lag, and initiated a go-around. Seeing that the remaining runway length was sufficient, he tried to land again. When he put the aeroplane into descent, the nose down angle was too high and the pilot tried to regain control by increasing power while pitching up with the trim. To his surprise, the aeroplane pitched down even further before the fight path righted itself. The aeroplane touched down hard on the runway with a flat attitude. The nose gear broke. The aeroplane finished its run at the edge of the runway, around 250 m after the hard touchdown.