This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
Everything started off as normal. We were crossing midfield in the Piper PA-44 Seminole to join the left downwind for Runway XX. After we joined the left downwind, we dropped our gear below 150 knots and proceeded to follow the traffic pattern as usual.
As we were coming down on the short final, everything was looking good and we were holding centerline.
It wasn’t until we touched down where the aircraft started to veer off to the left.
We both had right rudder in all the way. Power was all the way to idle, and we were holding down the brakes as well, but the airplane kept going to the left.
Once we knew there was no way of getting it back to centerline we braced for impact.
We went into the grass and approached the ditch that we ended up bouncing over and slightly missing. The plane was finally coming to a stop and we cut mixture off and got out.
The FBO manager came over to try and assist us and we left the scene as it was.
We did a little preflight afterwards just to see what had all been damaged. After assessing the damage we realized the vertical stabilizer was cracked, propeller had hit the grass, and the steering wheel bolt had been busted.
After reflecting on the situation, I believe that there must’ve been a connection issue between the rudder and steering wheel. The rudder pedals were very loose after the runway excursion and the steering wheel bolt that connects them together was busted.
So no matter how much rudder we used to keep it on centerline, the airplane was still steering to the left.
Primary Problem: Aircraft
ACN: 2010289
Use can use direction control with motor on a twin.
If you know nothing about aircraft and how they operate you should not write anything about them. There is no steering wheel nor is there a connection between the yoke and the rudder. You know absolutely nothing about aircraft.
Unless you are a pilot or are in manufacturing of aircraft please stop writing senseless garbage.
With a twin, differential power can be used for directional control subject of course to the pilot’s familiarity, ability, and the runway environment. Possibly a wider/longer runway would be needed. Apparently this was so unexpected that a go-around wasn’t considered maybe since contact was already made with the runway. But that alone doesn’t normally cancel that option and is a reminder to keep that option open if there are any problems with any rollout.
Interesting case here. Did the impact cause all that damage, or was it latent pre-existing? Breaking a bolt requires a large amount of force which doesn’t seem to be the case here according to the description. Was it a case of an old machine showing its age and lack of inspection and maintenance? They lost one of their 9 lives at the end of that flight. Recommend not tempting fate again without closer inspection — more than just the pre-flight checklist.
Regards/J
If you can think of it when you can’t get stopped kill the engine. Might be surprised what a difference this makes.
Yes —— .absolutely. Killing mags or mixture might get the props stopped too, before they contact.terrain.