- Date
- June 12, 1993, 10:30 local (18:30 UTC)
- Place
- Knik, AK
- Injuries
- 1 minor, 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N91952Piper PA-3
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report June 30, 1994
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- FAA report
- 19930612018059A
- Case key
- 2357
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The improper use of the flight controls by the student pilot and inadequate supervision by the CFI pilot-in-command.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The instructional flight, with the student pilot at the controls, had just completed several full stop wheel landings at the airport. On the accident flight, the student retarded the throttle to idle and began erratic longitudinal control on the landing rollout. The instructor pilot initiated left rudder to straighten directional control and applied elevator control to get the tailwheel on the ground at the same time that the student depressed the brake pedals. The airplane proceeded to go up onto its nose and over onto its back. Prior to the mishap flight, the instructor told the student that the airplane was equipped with dual puck cleveland brakes, that the brakes were very sensitive, and as such to stay off the brakes.
Factual narrative
On June 12, 1993, at 1030 Alaska daylight time, a wheel equipped Piper PA3 Cub airplane, N91952, flown by the student pilot on board the airplane, crashed during the landing rollout on runway 25 at Goose Bay Airport, Alaska. The flight instructor, who was also the pilot in command of the flight, received minor injuries, the student pilot was not injured, and the airplane sustained substantial damage. The flight, which originated at Merrill Field in Anchorage, Alaska, earlier in the day, was being conducted under 14 CFR Part 91 for the purpose of providing flight instruction to the student pilot who had recently purchased the airplane. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and a VFR flight plan was not filed.
The flight instructor and the student pilot were interviewed on separate occasions via telephone by the NTSB investigator in charge. Both individuals reported that shortly before the mishap, the student had completed several full stop wheel landings at the Goose Bay Airport. The instructor alerted the student to the fact that the airplane was equipped with dual puck Cleveland brakes, that the brakes were very sensitive, and as such to stay off the brakes. On the accident flight, the student retarded the throttle to idle and began erratic longitudinal control on the rollout. The instructor said that he used left rudder to straighten the directional control and elevator control to get the tailwheel on the ground at the same time that the student applied the brakes. The airplane proceeded to go up onto its nose and over onto its back.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N91952
- Reported as
- Piper PA-3
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 16372
- Airframe hours
- 3,500
- Engine
- Continental C85, 85 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Tanner, John
- Registered owner
- Tanner, John
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- MRI · Merrill Field, AK
- Destination
- Z40 · Goose Bay, AK
- Airport
- Z40 · Goose Bay, runway 25, 3,000 × 50 ft, gravel
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 43
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Single-engine sea, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Rear
- Flight hours
- 4,591 total · 350 in this make and model · 98 in the last 90 days · 41 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 50 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 64 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.