- Date
- July 2, 1992, 12:40 local (16:40 UTC)
- Place
- Moneta, VA
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N9218TPiper PA-38-112
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report April 7, 1995
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Case key
- 11807
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Failure of the student pilot to maintain directional control during the landing, which resulted in an inadvertent ground swerve. Factors related to the accident were: the student's improper recovery from a bounced landing and proximity of the tree.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The student pilot was on his first cross-country flight. As he was landing at an en route airport, the airplane bounced during touchdown. The student then lost directional control, and the airplane went off the runway and struck a tree.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N9218T
- Reported as
- Piper PA-38-112
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 38-78A0280
- Engine
- Lycoming O-235-L2C, 112 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Carolina Air Academy, Inc
- Registered owner
- Carolina Air Academy, Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- MWK · Mount Airy, NC
- Destination
- W91
- Airport
- W91 · Smith Mountain Lake, runway 23, 3,050 × 50 ft, concrete
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- -0 °F, dew point -0 °F