- Date
- June 14, 2007, 18:00 local (Jun 15, 2007, 01:00 UTC)
- Place
- Roche Harbor, WA
- Injuries
- 1 serious, 3 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N623AMNelson Murphy SR3500 Moose
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report August 30, 2007
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 20070614012609A
- Case key
- 65997
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 jamming of the left brake during landing. A factor was the kit manufacturer's design of the brake system.
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 pilot said he was landing on runway 07 with a 5-knot right crosswind. He said that shortly after touchdown, the aircraft started a slight drift to the right. The pilot said he applied left rudder to compensate and felt a "thunk" as the left rudder pedal locked forward, over center, underneath the brake pedal, which prevented the use of the left brake. The aircraft briefly lurched to the left. He applied hard right rudder, but with no apparent effect. He next applied right brake and intentionally ground looped the aircraft to prevent going down an embankment on the south side of the runway. The airplane's left main landing gear collapsed, followed by the left wing, left aileron, and forward fuselage being wrinkled and bent. The pilot said that the rudder/brake pedal assembly has only one master cylinder for the braking system and it is located on the right hand side. He said there is a mechanical linkage from the right to the left, which is prone to jamming in certain rudder pedal deflections. He said that other pilot's have reported this problem with their amateur-built airplanes manufactured from the same kit.
Factual narrative
The pilot said he was landing on runway 07 with a 5-knot right crosswind. He said that shortly after touchdown, the aircraft started a slight drift to the right. The pilot said he applied left rudder to compensate and felt a "thunk" as the left rudder pedal locked forward, over center, underneath the brake pedal, which prevented the use of the left brake. The aircraft briefly lurched to the left. He applied hard right rudder, but with no apparent effect. He next applied right brake and intentionally ground looped the aircraft to prevent going down an embankment on the south side of the runway. The airplane's left main landing gear collapsed, followed by the left wing, left aileron, and forward fuselage being wrinkled and bent.
The pilot said that the rudder/brake pedal assembly has only one master cylinder for the braking system and it is located on the right hand side. He said there is a mechanical linkage from the right to the left, which is prone to jamming in certain rudder pedal deflections. He said that other pilot's have reported this problem with their homebuilt airplanes manufactured from the same kit.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N623AM
- Reported as
- Nelson Murphy SR3500 Moose
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- SR123
- Engine
- Vendeneyev M-14P, 360 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Miguel E. Nelson
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Departed
- 74S · Anacortes, WA
- Destination
- WA09 · Roche Harbor, WA
- Airport
- WA09 · Roche Harbor Airport, runway 07, 3,593 × ft, asphalt
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
- 47
- Injuries
- Serious
- Certificates
- Flight engineer, Airline transport, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1
- Flight hours
- 10,265 total · 57 in this make and model · 95 in the last 90 days · 57 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 130° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 63 °F, dew point 45 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.13 inHg
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.