On April 11, 2005, about 1308 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 152, N24779, crashed into a field near Williamsburg, Ohio, after the rudder jammed during spin recovery training. The certificated flight instructor (CFI) and the student pilot were killed, and the airplane was substantially damaged. The flight departed Clermont County Airport, Batavia, Ohio, about 1230 and proceeded to a practice area about 10 miles east of the airport. Witnesses reported that, while at an altitude of about 3,000 feet above ground level, the airplane descended in a nose-down spiral from which it did not recover and crashed into a field. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local instructional flight, which was conducted under 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91.
This accident, along with a similar accident that occurred in Canada, led the NTSB yesterday to issue a letter to the FAA recommending a that an Airworthiness Directive be issued for all Cessna 150 and 152 aircraft requiring the inspection of the rubber rudder bumpers (try saying that fast, five times). It seems that Cessna issued a service bulletin covering the possibility of the rudder becoming jammed, but compliance with the SB was not mandatory. The NTSB also cannot determine if the bumpers installed on the accident aircraft were improperly installed when the aircraft was manufactured or when it was recently re-painted.
If you fly one of these aircraft, I recommend you read the text of the NTSB letter here, which includes photos and diagrams of the bumpers. You can read the NTSB accident report here.
