According to the pilot, he was landing at the airport in Modena, N.Y., after a local flight. A passenger was in the rear seat of the tailwheel-equipped Dakota S18-160.
During touchdown the airplane started to nose over, and the pilot realized that the passenger had his feet on the brakes.
He yelled at the passenger to get his feet off the brakes, but it was too late to prevent the airplane from nosing over.
The airplane flipped over inverted and came to a complete stop.
Examination of the airplane by an FAA inspector revealed that the vertical stabilizer was buckled.
Probable Cause: The passenger’s inadvertent application of the rear brakes during landing, which resulted in a nose-over.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This August 2020 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.
I wonder why the plane came to a complete
stop after being inverted?? Should the pilot have taxied to the nearest runway exit??
I train pilots to fly Waco and Great Lakes biplanes and require them to say “heels on the floor or feet off the brakes” when rolling wings level on final or just before takeoff.
When giving passenger rides I brief them to keep their feet flat on the floor “at all times”!
It’s a good lesson on how to brief passengers. The pilot said he had briefed the passenger about the brakes before the flight. But his safety recommendation gets into more detail – “thoroughly brief passengers about the location, and importance of brake pedals, and how to place feet so as not to interfere with brakes, especially during takeoff and landing’. So with hindsight it sounds like he realized his preflight brief was inadequate.