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April 21, Seattle, Wash. / Cessna Cardinal

At 12:06 Pacific time, a Cessna 177 crashed immediately after liftoff from runway 13L at King County International Airport. The pilot was not injured but his passenger received minor injuries. The pilot said the aircraft started rolling to the left after liftoff and he applied right aileron, but that resulted in the roll to the left becoming accelerated. As the aircraft approached 80 degrees of bank, the left wing struck the ground and the aircraft cartwheeled. The flight was the first following wing replacement and the aileron cables had been connected backwards. The pilot said he had performed a pre-takeoff check of the aileron movement but did not realize that they had deflected in a dire...

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

At 12:06 Pacific time, a Cessna 177 crashed immediately after liftoff from runway 13L at King County International Airport. The pilot was not injured but his passenger received minor injuries. The pilot said the aircraft started rolling to the left after liftoff and he applied right aileron, but that resulted in the roll to the left becoming accelerated. As the aircraft approached 80 degrees of bank, the left wing struck the ground and the aircraft cartwheeled. The flight was the first following wing replacement and the aileron cables had been connected backwards. The pilot said he had performed a pre-takeoff check of the aileron movement but did not realize that they had deflected in a direction opposite to his inputs.

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