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MIA98LA027 · Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3

18 Nov 1997 · Spruce Pine, NC, United States

Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during landing

From Greeneville Municipal Airport (GCY) to 7A8

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Event

NTSB case
MIA98LA027
Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
Completed
API-reported fatalities
0 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
0
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
General aviation
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Visual Meteorological Cond

Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3

Category
Airplane
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
N45018
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Greeneville Municipal Airport (GCY), Greeneville, TNTo 7A8
Aircraft age
Not recorded
Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
Part 91: General Aviation
Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
Landing · landing roll
First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
Airframe, component or system failure
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Landing gear, normal brake system › Locked

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

While on final approach 20 mph above the normal approach speed, the airplane floated and landed past the 1/3 portion of the runway. During the landing roll the pilot applied the brakes but the left brake locked up and the airplane veered off the left side of the runway then nosed over. Post accident examination of the right brake revealed that the brake to rotor clearance was greater than the adjustment limits. No determination could be made as to the reason for the left brake malfunction; however, when the airplane was uprighted and towed from the accident site, the left brake remained engaged.

Probable cause

The unintentional locking-up of the left brake for undetermined reasons resulting in the on ground loss of control. Contributing to the accident was the inability of the pilot to maintain directional control.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA98LA027
Event ID
20001208X09223
Case number
MIA98LA027
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
  • Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
  • Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: b7c9a219247059baf584f800335b4017a42aa7176b2d4774689215b0a881c4bb; retrieved 2026-09-22T18:11:49.186Z.