American Champion Aircraft 7ECA accident near Longview, Texas, October 7, 2020

The NTSB's narrative final · quoted from the NTSB record

The pilot reported that during the landing, when he attempted to input right rudder to correct for a left turn, the right rudder pedal moved full forward and prevented use of the right rudder or right brake. The airplane continued to turn left, exited the runway, and impacted a ditch resulting in substantial damage. After the accident it was found that the clevis pin that secured the rudder pedal to the top of the brake master cylinder had disconnected. The clevis pin was later found in the belly of the airplane. The cotter key that should have been installed to secure the clevis pin was not found, indicating that the cotter key likely was not installed. The most recent maintenance performed on the rudder pedals was about 1 year earlier and the airplane had accumulated about 500 hours since that maintenance was performed. Based on the evidence, it is likely that when maintenance was performed on the rudder pedals 1 year earlier the installation of the retaining cotter key was not accomplished by maintenance personnel. This error did not manifest until the clevis pin eventually worked loose and prevented the use of the right rudder and brake during the landing roll and resulted in the loss of directional control.

The complete narrative as the NTSB published it. The NTSB's docket holds the report as a PDF and any photographs, statements and other documents from the investigation.