Cessna 170B N3276A

Summary

On 29 December 1999 at about 22:00 local time, a Cessna 170B registered N3276A was involved in an accident near Oakland, Alabama, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

29 December 1999 at 22:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Oakland, Alabama, United States

Nearest airport

Private

Coordinates

34.8792, -87.8002

Aircraft

Cessna 170B

Registration

N3276A

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ATL00LA020

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's failure to verify that his seat was locked prior to takeoff. The subsequent bounce on takeoff enabled the seat to shift aft thereby reducing the pilot's access to controls leading to the inadvertent loss of control and ground impact with trees. Contributing factors were rough and uneven runway surface and the trees.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

According to the pilot, as the airplane accelerated for the takeoff, the landing gear rolled over a rut in the runway surface and the airplane bounced. When the airplane bounced, the pilot reported that his seat moved rearward, he could not reach the flight controls, and he lost control of the airplane. The airplane veered off the left side of the runway and collided with trees. An examination of the runway surface revealed that the clay and gravel runway had ruts in the center of the takeoff area. The examination of the airplane seat assembly revealed that both the seat rails and the seat locking pins were in serviceable condition.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.