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ERA26LA032

2025-11-06 · Suffolk, Virginia, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport VG37

Current FAA registration · N1860V

Make / Model
CESSNA 140
Year of manufacture
1947 · 78 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR C85 SERIES (85 hp)
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19560218
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A15962

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane during landing, which resulted in a nose over.

Factual narrative

The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped airplane was practicing touch-and-go landings on a private turf runway. Upon his third landing, he stated that the main landing gear seemed to be “digging into” the turf before the tail “rapidly” came up and the airplane nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the vertical stabilizer, rudder, and the fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Additionally, the pilot thought that the airplane’s parking brake might have been inadvertently engaged during the landing, but a postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that its parking brake had been removed at some point in the past. A functional test of the wheel brakes also confirmed that they operated normally. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
  • — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Surface speed/braking-Not attained/maintained

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2025_ERA26LA032.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

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