Piper PA-28-140 N4592R accident near Greenville, South Carolina

Probable cause

The pilot’s loss of directional control during the landing roll, which resulted in a runway excursion.

NTSB analysis

After turning onto final approach for landing at his home airport, the pilot selected 25 degrees of flaps and slowed the airplane to 80 mph. At this point, he encountered a slight crosswind, the airplane drifted to the right of the runway centerline, but the pilot corrected for it. He stated that the touchdown was smooth, but the airplane veered to the right. The pilot tried to correct using left rudder and left brake, but the airplane continued to veer to the right, departed the paved surface of the runway, and struck a runway sign with the left wing, substantially damaging the wing structure. The pilot stated that he believed that the right brake may have been "hanging up" and that he should have aborted the landing when the airplane began to veer to the right. A postaccident examination of the airplane did not reveal any anomalies with the brake system.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA12CA172 for the full record.