ERA22LA132 · Cessna 140
Cessna 140 · Accident: system/component malfunction/failure (non-power) during landing
From South Oaks Aerodrome (05N) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA22LA132
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 140
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 140
- 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
- N2509N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From South Oaks Aerodrome (05N), Winterville, NCTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 75 years (built 1947)
- 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
- System/component malfunction/failure (non-power)
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that during his landing roll, he attempted to slow the airplane as he exited the runway for the taxiway. As he applied brakes, the left brake loss pressure and the right brake maintained its pressure and operated normally. This anomaly caused the airplane to ground loop, which resulted in substantial damage to the left wing. Examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed the left brake master cylinder was void of fluid. Fluid was filled into the master cylinder and when pressure was applied to simulate braking, fluid began to seep from the master cylinder. The master cylinder was disassembled revealing a damaged O-ring seal. The O-ring was pinched and cut; therefore, unable to maintain hydraulic fluid within the master cylinder and resulted in the loss of braking. A review of maintenance records reveal that the braking system was serviced about a month prior, but no anomalies were noted during the service.
Probable cause
The loss of brake pressure on the left brake due to a failed O-ring seal.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA22LA132
- Event ID
- 20220223104685
- Case number
- ERA22LA132
- 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: d5bd128753f1c61626ef782b30ad01821ff5add3759f5b52b9a8e4c2cc838668; retrieved 2026-09-16T14:59:16.326Z.