- Date
- March 26, 2010, 11:20 local (16:20 UTC)
- Place
- Mckinney, TX
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N18563Cessna 172S
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Loss of control in flight
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report July 1, 2010
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- FAA FSDO
- FAA report
- 20100326030539A
- Case key
- 75595
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
The student pilot's loss of directional control while landing with a crosswind.
Findings · 2
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The student pilot was on his third solo flight and planned to do several touch-and-go landings. He reported that he had completed five landings without incident. On the sixth landing, he stated that after the main wheels touched the runway the airplane veered left. The student pilot was unable to correct back to the center of the runway. The airplane then exited the runway, the nose gear encountered soft terrain, dug in, and was torn from the airplane. The student pilot added that at the time of the accident the wind was out of the southeast and gusting, but was within the crosswind limit he and his flight instructor had set before the flight.
Factual narrative
The student pilot was on his third solo flight and planned to do several “touch-and-go landings.” He reported he had completed 5 series of landings without incident. On the sixth landing, he stated that after the main wheels touched the runway, the airplane veered left. The student pilot was unable to correct back to the center of the runway. The airplane then exited the hard surface runway and when the nose gear encountered soft terrain; dug in, and was torn from the airplane. The student pilot added that at the time of the accident the wind was out of the southeast and gusting, but was within the crosswind limit he and his flight instructor had set before the flight.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N18563
- Reported as
- Cessna 172S
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 172S9926
- Airframe hours
- 2,861
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-360-L2A, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Lonestar Flyers
- Registered owner
- Gzork Investments LLC
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · January 15, 2010
- Departed
- KADS · Addison, TX
- Destination
- KTKI · Mckinney, TX
- Airport
- KTKI · Collin County Regional Airport, runway 17, 7,001 × 100 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
- Student pilot
- Age
- 30
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Without waivers/limitations
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 30 total · 30 in this make and model · 4 as pilot in command · 30 in the last 90 days · 7 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 160° at 11 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 55 °F, dew point 43 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.09 inHg
- Observed at
- KTKI
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on April 20, 2010, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 644 KB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.