SEA02LA149 · Piper PA-22/20
Piper PA-22/20 · Accident: nose over during landing
From Moose Creek US Forest Service Airport (1U1) to Shearer US Forest Service Airport (2U5)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA02LA149
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Piper PA-22/20
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-22
- 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
- N1573P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Moose Creek US Forest Service Airport (1U1), Moose Creek, IDTo Shearer US Forest Service Airport (2U5), Shearer, ID
- 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
- Nose over
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, excessive
- Pilot in command › Brakes(normal), excessive
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Before making his approach for the planned full-stop landing, the pilot flew over the 2,000 foot runway in order to check the winds. After seeing the wind socks were hanging limp (no wind), he initiated his approach to runway 18. While on final approach , the pilot realized that he was "coming in a little high," so he slipped the aircraft in order to lose altitude. As he crossed the runway threshold, his ground speed was "higher than normal," and he therefore had to use excessive braking in order to stop the aircraft before it reached the far end of the runway. During his braking attempt, as the aircraft was passing over a dip in the runway, it nosed over on to its back. According to the pilot, a slight tailwind seemed to come up while he was on final approach. The approach to runway 18 (the recommended landing direction) was made up the narrow Selway River Canyon and is a "blind approach." The first 400 feet of runway 18 is "very rough," and the Idaho Airport Facility Directory states that "inexperienced pilots" should use this field for emergencies only.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain the proper approach speed while on final approach to the 2000 foot airstrip, and his excessive application of brakes while attempting to stop the aircraft during the resultant longer than normal landing roll. Factors include a slight tailwind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA02LA149
- Event ID
- 20020827X01463
- Case number
- SEA02LA149
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2002-08-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f5e0846ade20590699a3d26a5d9056f2c9664de36b158ed97606c6e35804f805; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:31:59.175Z.