- Date
- November 6, 2025, 15:43 local (20:43 UTC)
- Place
- Suffolk, VA
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N1860VCessna 140
- Defining event
- Landing: Nose over/nose down
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report January 9, 2026
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20251106018649A
- Case key
- 201967
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 pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane during landing, which resulted in a nose over.
Findings · 2
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped airplane was practicing touch-and-go landings on a private turf runway. Upon his third landing, he stated that the main landing gear seemed to be “digging into” the turf before the tail “rapidly” came up and the airplane nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the vertical stabilizer, rudder, and the fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Additionally, the pilot thought that the airplane’s parking brake might have been inadvertently engaged during the landing, but a postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that its parking brake had been removed at some point in the past. A functional test of the wheel brakes also confirmed that they operated normally.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N1860V
- Reported as
- Cessna 140 (UNDESIGNATED SERIES)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 14039
- Built
- 1947
- Airframe hours
- 4,057
- Engine
- Continental Motor C-85-12F, 85 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · May 9, 2025
- Destination
- Same as departure
- Airport
- VG37 · Greenway Airfield, runway 01, 2,550 × 60 ft, grass/turf
- Equipment
- ADS-B, Electronic flight bag or handheld device
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
- 61
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- August 10, 2025
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 4-point
- Flight hours
- 266 total · 39 in this make and model · 205 as pilot in command · 24 in the last 90 days · 6 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 330° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 61 °F, dew point 25 °F
- Altimeter
- 3019.00 inHg
- Observed at
- SFQ, 6 nm away
- METAR
- METAR KSFQ 062035Z AUTO 33004KT CLR 16/M04 A3019
Docket · 4
The files NTSB released with the investigation on January 9, 2026, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 6.3 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.