[Ernie Martin]

We are very sorry for your loss.

Virtually all Cessna general aviation airplane built 20-40 years ago have a seat-rail arrangement which, over time, can fail and cause the seat and occupant to slide backwards. Because of this, and the occurrence of instance(s) where the occupant sliding backwards grabbed the yoke and caused the aircraft to pitch upwards, the manufacturer issued Service Bulletins (SBs) and the FAA issued Airworthiness Directives (ADs) requiring recurring inspections.

The rails have holes in them and the seats have spring-loaded pins which the occupant engages into the holes when he/she has moved the seat to the desired position. If the holes and/or pins are excessively worn (which they shouldn't be if the necessary AD inspection was performed), it is possible for the arrangement to fail even if the seat was properly latched. It is also possible that one of the front seat occupants did not properly latch the spring-loaded seat pins into the rail holes, causing that seat to roll backwards when the aircraft rotated on take-off.

It is, of course, premature to speculate. It might be an entirely different problem, such as the elevator becoming jammed in the up position. If it is the seat rail, it could be a maintenance issue (the rail inspections were not done or were done improperly) or a human issue (failure to do the pre-flight checks and announcements indicated by Dale Campbell in his response above).

Ernie