Nose-Over and Nose-Down Accidents in General Aviation: Tailwheels and Aging Airplanes

Safety in General Aviation has been a continuous concern. About 12% of all airplane accidents in General Aviation involve nose-overs and nose-down events. A total of 134 accidents reported by the National Transportation Safety Board that include nose-overs and nose-downs were analyzed for their main causes. It was found that 35% of the defining events involved a loss of control on the ground while 58% of the total dataset involved tailwheel-type aircraft. A relatively high proportion of aircraft built before 1950 were found, which are also aircraft that have tailwheel-type landing gear, and thereby a higher propensity for ground loops and nose-overs. It is shown that the high accident rate in General Aviation, especially for accidents that did not result in a fatality, was, to an important extent, explained by tailwheel and older aircraft in the US General Aviation airplane fleet struggling with controlling the aircraft on the ground. Attention to this group of aircraft in future studies may help to more effectively address the relatively high accident rates in General Aviation.