Piper PA-18-150 N3189Z

Summary

On 3 June 1999 at about 21:41 local time, a Piper PA-18-150 registered N3189Z was involved in an accident near Ephrata, Washington, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

3 June 1999 at 21:41

Classification

Accident

Location

Ephrata, Washington, United States

Nearest airport

Ephrata Municipal (EPH)

Coordinates

47.2709, -119.5908

Aircraft

Piper PA-18-150

Registration

N3189Z

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA99FA080

1 person died.

The glider pilot's failure to maintain control of his aircraft during spoiler retraction, which led to the Piper pilot's inability to recover safe flying airspeed within the altitude constraints at the time of the event. Contributing factors were the failure of the glider pilot to ensure that the spoilers were locked prior to takeoff, and the binding of the tow aircraft's tow hook release latch.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

During a glider tow, the glider pilot failed to ensure that his aircraft's spoilers were retracted in the locked position during takeoff. During the initial climb, the towplane pilot radioed 'SPOILERS, BOB, SPOILERS' and a witness observed seeing the spoilers extended. The glider pilot retracted the spoilers during which the glider entered a nose-high, pitch up attitude. Realizing he was in a high tow position, and before he was able to manually release the tow line from the glider, the tow rope broke in overload and within the specified tensile limits per regulatory requirements. A witness observed seeing the towplane climb to approximately 150 feet AGL and then pitch nose down, descending in an approximate 45 degree flight path to a wings level ground impact. The aircraft impacted the terrain 40-50 degrees nose low, wings-level with the engine developing power. Examination of the aircraft's tow hook release latch mechanism revealed the potential for binding of the release latch when the towed aircraft moved significantly above the horizontal (trail) position.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.