ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 294125
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| Date: | Friday 4 February 2005 |
| Time: | 14:15 LT |
| Type: |  Air Tractor AT-401 |
| Owner/operator: | Frontier Agricultural Service, Inc. |
| Registration: | N4530L |
| MSN: | 401-0761 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 7154 hours |
| Engine model: | Garrett TPE-331 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Calexico, California -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Unknown |
| Nature: | Agricultural |
| Departure airport: | Calexico, CA (61CL) |
| (61CL) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The airplane veered off the runway, collided with a berm, and came to rest in a ditch following a loss of control during landing. During the landing flare the pilot encountered a left crosswind and he input right rudder to compensate for the crosswind, but the pedal would not move. After the accident the pilot noticed that he was still depressing the right rudder pedal. He looked down and saw that the rudder pedal adjusting pin was caught on the aft edge of the hopper. When he relaxed pressure on the rudder pedal, the pedal moved to the left and was free of the hopper. Post accident examination by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector revealed a groove the pin had carved into the side wall of the hopper over time. The groove began at a radius in the hopper wall where the wall turned 90 degrees from a cross cockpit orientation to a longitudinal direction. When he depressed the rudder pedal, he noted that the adjusting pin contacted the groove the entire length of travel. He further noted that despite the contact of the pin in the groove, there was no restriction of movement of the rudder pedal. A gouge dimensionally identical in shape and size to the pin was observed in the hopper just to the right of where the adjusting pin contacted the groove. The FAA inspector noted no groove or gouge on the left side of the hopper.
Probable Cause: a loss of directional control due to a jammed rudder pedal, which prevented the pilot from exercising full rudder control authority.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB LAX05LA085
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 26 August 2010 | N4530L | Rustys Flying Service | 0 | Castroville, Texas | |
sub |
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 10-Oct-2022 17:34 | ASN Update Bot | Added |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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