20240420005439A

On April 20, 2024, at 16:22 local time a Cessna 172 impacted the ground while attempting to land at Zelienople airport (pjc) in Zelienople, Pennsylvania. There were 3 people included the pilot on board, no injuries, and the aircraft suffered substantial damage.

The flight was a 14 CFR part 91 flight that originated at university park, PA (unv) and the destination was Zelienople, PA (pjc).

The weather reported 7 minutes prior to the event at pjc was winds 290 degrees at 12 KTS with gusts to 22 KTS, 10 miles visibility scattered clouds at 6000 ft., 12 degrees centigrade and barometric pressure 30.05.

When he approached the Zelienople airport, he entered the traffic pattern for an approach and landing on runway 35. The approach speed for the C-172 is 65 KTS and he added 5 KTS for the gust factor and flew the approach at 70 KTS.

Between 20 and 30 feet AGL he encountered a gust of wind and noticed a loss of airspeed. He was unsure how much but at that moment he added full power in an attempt to go around and the aircraft kept sinking to the ground.

He said the aircraft made contact with the ground and the propeller made contact with the pavement and the engine stopped. The aircraft exited off the runway to the left. When the aircraft came to a stop the PIC shut down the aircraft and all 3 evacuated the aircraft.

Evidence shows the aircraft made contact with the runway at about 1000 feet from the threshold. 2 tire skid marks for about 150 feet in length (from the nose tire and right main tire), 18 blade strikes, 6 additional strikes in the grass and a long white paint mark which was created by the right wing when it made contact with the runway. This would also indicate that the left main tire was in the air. The right main tire had a bold spot would indicate the brakes were locked up. The skid mark from the nose tire indicates the nose tire was skidding sideways during the event. In addition, there was dirt on the spinner and grass in the nose cowling and about a 4 inch gouge in the dirt. This would indicate the spinner made ground contact and when that happened the tail of the aircraft went into the air then settled back down and the tail tiedown made ground contact by evidence of dirt in the tail section.

On April 25, 2024, iic contacted the front seat passenger to see if there were injuries to either him or the back seat passenger. He said they were both fine and did not seek or there was no need to seek medical attention.

As a non pilot, the front seat passenger indicated that before touchdown all of a sudden they smacked into the ground and he felt that the airplane was going to tip over to the right. He didn’t know why it didn’t and that the plane stopped on the side of the runway. The plane tipped forward then settled back in the upright position. The pilot shut things off and said let get out of here. The passenger could not open the passenger door and they all had to exit out of the pilots door.

Three maintenance inspectors and one operations inspector inspected aircraft on 4/23 at the condor flight club facility. Iic interviewed the pilot. Root cause appears airman lost control during landing phase when encountering what appears to be windshear. Aircraft departed 1100 feet off the left side of the runway and came to rest 20 feet off the edge of the runway.

Maintenance inspectors examined the aircraft and determined substantial damage to the engine, propeller, and the airframe.