WPR12LA348 · Santana PA-18 REPLICA
Santana PA-18 REPLICA · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Ronan Airport (7S0) to Ronan Airport (7S0)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR12LA348
- 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
Santana PA-18 REPLICA
- Aircraft type
- Santana PA-18
- 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
- N3AK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ronan Airport (7S0), Ronan, MTTo Ronan Airport (7S0), Ronan, MT
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2011)
- 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 · flare/touchdown
- Defining eventThe 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot, who was also the owner/builder of the airplane, reported that he had flown a left traffic pattern in the tailwheel-equipped airplane and that the wind was light and variable. The pilot then conducted a wheel landing, and he reported that it was normal. However, immediately after he lowered the tailwheel to the runway, the airplane veered rapidly right and then skidded off of the runway into grass.
On-scene examination of the wreckage revealed that both of the tailwheel chains that normally connected the rudder horns to the tailwheel steering arms were disconnected from their respective springs. The end link of one of the chains was fractured, whereas the end link of the other chain was intact. The chains were different lengths, which was consistent with the possible failure and loss of one or more links. During subsequent disassembly of the tailwheel pivot mechanism, some springs and internal components were found fractured, and at least one of the springs was found jammed, which prevented the tailwheel from pivoting.
Although the investigation could not determine when or why the chains failed or became disconnected, significantly increased or complete resistance to tailwheel pivoting could result in the failure of one or both chains. The available evidence is consistent with the tailwheel having become jammed, and possibly uncontrollable, in a noncentered position during flight, which resulted in the airplane entering a right veer during the landing roll from which the pilot could not recover. The maintenance technician who disassembled the tailwheel after the accident reported that the damage to the pivot mechanism did not result from the accident.
Probable cause
A jammed tailwheel assembly, which resulted in the pilot’s inability to maintain directional control upon landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR12LA348
- Event ID
- 20120809X72239
- Case number
- WPR12LA348
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: d9de94f7fe3647ccde543659770f28d5ab12927ca4622b16eb2402b2ed017259; retrieved 2026-09-15T19:17:52.966Z.