15 May 2009: PIPER PA-22-150 — HOLT GREGORY J

15 May 2009: PIPER PA-22-150 — HOLT GREGORY J

No fatalities • Talkeetna, AK, United States

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll, resulting in a ground loop and substantial damage to the airplane.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

The private pilot reported he was landing his tailwheel airplane on a hard-surfaced dry runway, which required a correction for a 5 knot right crosswind. The airplane was operated under Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. During the landing roll, the airplane’s tailwheel began to shimmy, and the pilot applied a slight amount of forward elevator to stop the shimmy. He said that the airplane then swerved to the left, and went off the left side of the runway. The airplane subsequently ground looped to the left, and the right main landing gear collapsed, striking the right wing on the gravel-covered shoulder of the runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing spar. The pilot indicated that there were no preaccident mechanical problems with the airplane, other than the tailwheel shimmy. On May 29, under the supervision of the NTSB investigator-in-charge, the tailwheel was disassembled and inspected, and no preaccident mechanical anomalies were discovered.

Contributing factors

  • cause Directional control — Not attained/maintained
  • cause Pilot

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 060/05kt, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.