Bellanca 8GCBC N87008

Summary

On 26 July 2005 at about 01:50 local time, a Bellanca 8GCBC registered N87008 was involved in an accident near Oroville, California, United States. One person was on board and one had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

26 July 2005 at 01:50

Classification

Accident

Location

Oroville, California, United States

Nearest airport

Oroville Farm Strip

Coordinates

39.4833, -121.6167

Aircraft

Bellanca 8GCBC

Registration

N87008

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Oroville → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX05LA245

1 person had minor injuries.

a binding and/or activation of the brakes that lead to an inadvertent nose over. The underlying root cause of the brake binding/activation could not be determined.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane nosed over during landing. The pilot said he had been out practicing landings, and the accident landing was to be his last of the day. The first three landings were completed with no discrepancies. On the fourth landing, the airplane touched down on the main landing gear in a tail low attitude; the tail started to rise, and the pilot thought that the main landing gear "appeared to make a slight 'bounce.'" He did a go-around and came back to land for the last time. On the accident landing, he did a 3-point landing. The landing was normal, power was at idle, and he noted his airspeed at 65 miles per hour; however, it felt as if the brakes were being "strongly applied." The tail started to rise, and he immediately pulled back on the stick to its full rearward position. He checked his foot position on the rudder pedals, and removed them temporarily to see if that would help; however, the braking action continued with no airplane response to the full aft stick. The airplane rotated forward, and nosed over. The pilot stated that after the accident he walked the runway and saw that the main landing gear left straight skid marks for about 150 feet from the touchdown point, until the airplane nosed over. A witness observed black smoke coming from the wheels just after the airplane came to rest inverted. Another witness was at the airplane about 25 minutes after the accident and attempted to rotate the main wheels. The witness said that they would rotate, but that there was "quite a bit of drag on them." Two airframe and power plant mechanics examined the airplane the day after the accident and found no identifiable brake system anomalies. They noted that the parking brake was in the OFF position, and indicated that the skid marks on the runway were indicative of the brakes either partially or fully activated on touchdown until the airplane turned over. They theorized that the brake anomaly might have been due to the brake piston being stuck, possible foreign debris in the brake lines or brakes themselves, or a high ambient temperature causing internal hydraulic pressure buildup in the cylinder and lines, thus activating the brakes.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.