Piper PA-18 N9908D

Summary

On 12 January 2002 at about 17:32 local time, a Piper PA-18 registered N9908D was involved in an accident near Anchorage, Alaska, United States. 2 people were 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

12 January 2002 at 17:32

Classification

Accident

Location

Anchorage, Alaska, United States

Nearest airport

Merrill Field (PAMR)

Coordinates

61.2144, -149.8461

Aircraft

Piper PA-18

Registration

N9908D

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Anchorage → Anchorage

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ANC02LA009

Nobody was injured.

The flight instructor's inadequate supervision of the flight. Factors in the accident were the student's failure to maintain directional control of the airplane during the landing roll, icy runway conditions, and snow-covered terrain along the runway edges.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The certificated flight instructor was providing instruction to the private pilot/new owner of a tundra tire-equipped, tailwheel airplane. The flight instructor occupied the rear seat of the airplane. The pilot/owner had accrued 66 total flight hours, 14 hours as pilot-in-command, and .5 hours in the accident airplane. Five minutes after takeoff, the student was performing a landing on an asphalt surface runway that had areas of ice along the edges. During the landing roll the airplane began to drift to the right. The instructor applied left rudder, but the airplane departed the right side of the runway into an area of snow. The airplane nosed over and received damage to the propeller, fuselage, and wing lift struts. The right master brake cylinder, installed in the front seat area, was serviced before the flight. A heater hose was installed in the cabin to direct heat into the rear seat area. The instructor reported that the airplane's right brake felt as if it was locked, which she said may have been due to overfilling the brake reservoir, and heating of the brake cylinder by the heater. The instructor cited two previous NTSB reports of brake cylinder locking after extended flight with a heater hose blowing hot air on a brake reservoir. A review of the two previous accidents disclosed airplanes had locked brakes during landing, both within five days of each other in 1997. The previous NTSB accident reports involved two aircraft where a heater hose was directed onto the master brake cylinders after the brake cylinders were serviced. One of the accidents involved 1.5 hours of flight time before landing. The second accident involved 3 hours of flight time before landing. The accident airplane's brake system was not examined postaccident.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.