Accident to the Cessna F172 registered F-GCNK on 23/05/2021 at Abzac

During the last turn to land at Libourne - Artigues-de-Lussac aerodrome, the pilot lost control of the aeroplane, which descended to the ground in a left turn with a steep bank angle.

The investigation was unable to determine the exact causes of this loss of control and to explain why the pilot had been unable to correct the aeroplane’s bank angle.

Although it was observed that the aileron control system had ruptured at a severely corroded link, the complete opening of the chain was probably caused by the impact with the ground. However, the examinations conducted by the BEA, as well as the discussions with the manufacturer, were unable to validate this hypothesis or rule out the hypothesis of this corroded link having opened in flight. If this was the case, the tautness of the interconnection loop between the two control wheels would decrease, potentially preventing any action on the ailerons that would be unrestricted in movement and would position themselves in the relative wind’s path. It was not possible to check this scenario.