Folding-Wing Aircraft At Risk for Wing Separation
A Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin has been published for the Seamax Model M-22, an amphibious LSA. An NTSB investigation into the 2022 crash of one aircraft discovered the "right wing was separated from the main wreckage and located in a tree, and the right wing strut was separated from the right wing." More worrisome was their finding that the "bolt attaching the right strut to the right wing remained attached...and was not fractured; however, the nut was not present." The fact that the bolt's threading exhibited "no significant damage" only worsened the impression that the strut/wing attachment point in other Seamax M-22s could be at risk of a disappearing bolt, too. Operators hav