The pilot reported that while in the traffic pattern at the airport in Watsonville, Calif., the Tecnam P92’s right rudder stopped responding.
She aligned the airplane with the runway for landing and touched down long. During the landing roll, she lost directional control and the plane departed the runway, and continued through the grass and dirt for about 500 feet.
The front main landing gear collapsed and the plane came to a stop on its nose. The engine’s firewall and the tube frame behind the firewall were substantially damaged, but there were no injuries.
The NTSB determined the probable cause as the pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during landing.
NTSB Identification: WPR14CA033
This October 2013 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
“A postaccident examination of the airframe revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.”
If you click on the link in the story, you can read their summation. Without saying so, they essentially are saying the pilot made up the story about the rudder not working.
How did the NTSB determine that the accident cause for a pilot WITHOUT FULL RUDDER CONTROL her “failure to maintain directional control during landing?” If a wing falls off on final approach, but the pilot still survives uninjured beside the runway, is this somehow a similar cause for the assignment of blame to pilot error? Space permitting here, I’d love to read NTSB summations of more than one sentence. Otherwise, these clowns begin to sound as though they weren’t pleased with the wet bar service at their government-provided accommodations.
Er….did her brakes fail as well as in differential braking for directional control? I’m assuming there was no nose wheel steering. I’d bet the pilot’s story about the right rudder failure was a fabrication to try and cover her pilot error as the cause of the accident. There’s obviously only one rudder contrary to the inference of right versus left rudder. The words right rudder control input or application were missing in this condensed summary. It’s basically not feasible that a mechanical reversible rudder would experience only failure of right rudder control input.