The solo student pilot reported that while taxiing to the runway at the airport in Hanover, Virginia, for departure, he attempted to adjust the seat to get a “better view.”
When he released the seat latch, the seat moved aft, and he was unable to reach the rudder pedals or brake pedals with his feet. He added that he was unable to lean forward because his seat belt was secured.
Subsequently, the Cessna 172 veered left. He pulled the engine throttle to idle, but the airplane left the taxiway, running into a ditch and then a wire fence.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and right horizontal stabilizer.
The student pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable Cause: The student pilot’s improper decision to release the seat latch to adjust the seat position during taxi, which resulted in his inability to reach the rudder or brake pedals and a subsequent loss of directional control and impact with a ditch and fence.
This February 2019 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
There has been a major series of ADs on pre-1990’s Cessna seat tracks starting, I think, AD 87-20-03, issued 1987. It’s a crappy design, made worse by poor maintenance. Additionally, they encourage, and fairly recently supplied for free a backup seat stop device.
This AD was perhaps the one to have affected the largest number of planes, ever. IIRC, it was precipitated by the fatal stall-spin crash just after take-off of a Cardinal RG at Eagle Creek near Indianapolis. Cardinals in particular have an absurdly long rail for the front seats. Particularly sad for me, was that the pilot was a very fine CFI from whom I’d gotten dual aerobatic instruction in their FBO’s Decathlon. She was a young, very-petite woman, flying that day solo. When that seat rolled back at 100′ agl, she didn’t have even half a chance of living through it.
The fact that this simple issue is still causing damage and death 35 years later is both tragic and sad.
On my very first solo, in the summer of 1972, just as I rotated in the Cessna 150 my seat slid back in the track.
I couldn’t reach the pedals. I could barely get my finger tips on the yoke so, at 100 or so feet in the air I was able to push the nose to level and quickly adjust the seat.
Then I climbed on out and completed my three full stop/taxi back/takeoffs.
Had I not been tall enough to get my fingers on the yoke and have the presence of mind to act quickly, I most likely would have died that day.
I was 18 years old.
Thanks for that story. That type of emergency is not discussed as much as it probably should be. The natural reaction would be to pull on the control wheel to slide the seat forward to where it was, ending in a stall. Probably in many/most cases, the trim was set for the initial climb and will keep the pitch in a relatively safe position so the pilot should just not touch the control wheel while using some other brace to pull the seat forward. In some airplanes, there are even grab handles that could be used. Your resolution is a perfect example that the pitch is priority, not the seat. Engine out scenarios are very commonly done, but this emergency just after rotation is not or the emergency on the ground in this report. The seats in some airplanes will slide back instantly because of the downward slope of the rails so even accidental upward pressure on the release bar becomes an instant emergency. Training for these emergencies can be done safely while there’s a CFI in the right seat so the student/pilot can intentionally move the seat back and then learn to go through the correct steps needed to recover from that problem, somewhat similar to dealing with an open window or door. I wish I had thought of that 40+ years ago.