The pilot reported that during the landing roll with a constant crosswind, the Cessna 195A veered left of the runway centerline at the airport in Salinas, Calif. He applied right rudder control and braking action, which resulted in an over correction. The airplane entered a right ground loop which rotated it about 270°. The fuselage […]
NTSB Accidents
Distracted student pilot lands gear up
The student pilot reported that following an uneventful flight in the Cessna 177RG, as he entered the airport traffic pattern in Richland, Wash., on the downwind leg, he was notified by another pilot that there was an airplane operating within the traffic pattern with no radio. The student pilot established visual contact with one airplane, […]
Flight into icing conditions fatal for five
The instrument-rated pilot was on a 234-nm instrument flight rules (IFR) cross-country flight over mountainous terrain in the Beech B36TC. During the flight, he notified a controller at the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) that the plane was picking up too much ice and requested to divert to an airport located about 96 miles […]
172 hits FBO
The Cessna 172 had just returned from a training flight near New Orleans and the engine was still warm. The pilot said she had difficulty starting the engine and opened the throttle “just a bit.” She said she set the parking brake and her feet were on the brakes. When the engine started, it went […]
Flight into icing conditions injures three
The non-instrument-rated private pilot obtained a computerized weather briefing about nine hours before he departed on a night cross-country flight in a Piper PA28-181. At that time, neither ice nor low visibility conditions were forecast along his intended flight route. He did not obtain any additional weather information before takeoff or while en route. Weather […]
Fuel exhaustion brings down C-150
The Cessna 150L pilot reported that, before departure, she checked the fuel gauges and estimated that the fuel tanks were just under 1/2 full and contained no less than 10 gallons of fuel. (The total fuel capacity was 26 gallons, of which 3.5 gallons were unusable.) She was unable to measure the fuel because she […]
Landing on lake goes awry
The pilot was landing a wheel/ski-equipped Cessna 185 on a frozen, wind-blown, ice and snow-covered lake near Nenana, Alaska. He had established a landing area earlier in the day, by laying down ski tracks with a friend’s ski-equipped airplane. Upon touchdown, the plane did not slow as expected, and it began to veer off the […]
Flight to funeral fatal
According to the pilot’s wife, he departed on a cross-country flight in a Focke-Wulf FWP 149D to attend a friend’s funeral. He told her he intended to stop to buy fuel at an airport 20 miles from the departure airport. Although the pilot indicated to her the night before the accident that he was concerned […]
Part installed upside down leads to fatal crash
The Dragonfly gyroplane was in the traffic pattern at the airport in Anahuac, Texas, when witnesses saw the main rotor head separate in flight and the gyroplane subsequently hit terrain, killing the pilot. The pilot’s friends and the mechanic who performed the last conditional inspection reported that the pilot/owner performed most of the maintenance on […]