GAA15CA242 · Cessna 305A A
Cessna 305A A · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Mid-Way Regional Airport (JWY) to Mid-Way Regional Airport (JWY)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA15CA242
- 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
Cessna 305A A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 305
- 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
- N5255G
- Operator
- Setian Peter
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mid-Way Regional Airport (JWY), Midlothian, TXTo Mid-Way Regional Airport (JWY), Midlothian, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 64 years (built 1951)
- 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
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that after a simulated rope break maneuver while towing a glider, he maneuvered to the runway and landed "normal". The pilot reported that during the landing roll the airplane "yawed" to the left; he applied right rudder inputs to correct the yaw, but it was ineffective. The pilot reported that he "quickly applied right brake", but "felt no brake pressure in the pedal". He "pressed the brake pedal 4-5 times as the aircraft continued to yaw", subsequently the airplane ground looped to the left.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and the fuselage.
The pilot reported that when he applied the right brake he "heard the pedal click against something behind it, creating a metallic sound."
A post-accident examination of the right brake system components revealed, that the brake disc was within limits, and brake pads were within limits. The aluminum hydraulic brake line tube which is lead along the aft edge of the gear leg from the brake caliper toward the master cylinder was broken about halfway down the gear leg, under the retaining bracket. The retaining bracket was canted and the brake line and rubber padding had been secured with a zip tie. There were no signs of impact damage at the break.
In a statement from the airplane's type certificate holder to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC) dated October 14, the holder reported that at the point where the zip tie had been installed, the brake line was supposed to be held in place by a green bracket, with the small section of rubber tube protecting the line from direct contact with the other metal parts. The green bracket should be positioned perpendicular to the aft contour line of the gear leg.
It is likely that the canted bracket and zip tie created a pinch point on the flexing gear leg and resulted in the failure of the brake line.
Probable cause
The failure of the brake line tubing for the right main landing gear brake, due to a non-standard method used to secure the brake line, which resulted in a loss of control during landing, and a ground loop.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA15CA242
- Event ID
- 20150831X61356
- Case number
- GAA15CA242
- 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: 2fc87218ce1576fe8f75c86c7cc6a621120bcceb337ed2d75e0fbff39c6728eb; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:43:50.916Z.