Cessna 140 N1860V accident near Suffolk, Virginia

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane during landing, which resulted in a nose over.

NTSB analysis

The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped airplane was practicing touch-and-go landings on a private turf runway. Upon his third landing, he stated that the main landing gear seemed to be “digging into” the turf before the tail “rapidly” came up and the airplane nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the vertical stabilizer, rudder, and the fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Additionally, the pilot thought that the airplane’s parking brake might have been inadvertently engaged during the landing, but a postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that its parking brake had been removed at some point in the past. A functional test of the wheel brakes also confirmed that they operated normally.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA26LA032 for the full record.