Cessna 150H N6555S accident near Maury City, Tennessee

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to attain the proper glidepath during on off-airport landing.

NTSB analysis

During a local flight at 500 feet above ground level and about 10 miles from the departure airport, the pilot reported hearing a "pop" sound from the rear of the airplane. Concerned about whether further flight was safe, the pilot elected to perform an off-airport precautionary landing. After reducing engine power, the pilot attempted to "slip" the airplane and noted that the left rudder pedal would not move and that he could not slip the airplane to the left. The airplane subsequently approached the field higher and faster than the pilot intended and overran the intended landing area. Before coming to rest, the nose landing gear collapsed forward, resulting in substantial damage to the firewall. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the nose landing gear steering linkage was pulled taut, which restricted movement of the left rudder pedal. The taut nose landing gear steering linkage was likely the result of the accident sequence. After disconnecting the steering linkage, the rudder operated normally in both directions with no other flight control anomalies noted.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA11LA203 for the full record.