- Date
- June 28, 2021, 19:30 local (23:30 UTC)
- Place
- Ray, MI
- Injuries
- 1 serious, 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Phase of flight
- Other
- Aircraft
- N920SSFlight Design Ctls
- Defining event
- Other: AC/prop/rotor contact w person
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- FAA FSDO
- FAA report
- 20210628011059I
- Case key
- 103380
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 flight instructor’s improper decision to direct the student pilot to exit the airplane with the engine running, which resulted in serious injury when the student walked into the propeller arc.
Findings · 1
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 flight instructor was conducting the 16-year-old student pilot’s first instructional flight. After completing several takeoffs and landings, they “taxied around the airport multiple times,” during which they experienced “light to sometimes moderate” rain. At the conclusion of the lesson, the rain became heavy enough that visibility was reduced, and the instructor decided to taxi the airplane into its open hangar to avoid getting wet. As they approached the hangar, the instructor noted a set of wheel chocks on the ground, and with the engine still running, he instructed the student to exit the airplane, walk around the propeller arc, and move the chocks so that he, “could taxi the airplane nose-first into the hangar…then turn it around once inside and shut down.” He stated that he repeated the instructions to ensure that the student understood. The student subsequently exited the airplane and walked forward into the spinning propeller, resulting in serious injury. The instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N920SS
- Reported as
- Flight Design Ctls
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- F-10-02-05
- Built
- 2010
- Airframe hours
- 2,315
- Engine
- Rotax 912ULS, 100 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Dodger Aircraft LLC
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Special light-sport (Special)
- Last inspection
- Condition · March 2, 2021 · 45.5 hours before
- Destination
- Same as departure
- Airport
- 57D · Ray Community
- Equipment
- Auto-pilot, Airframe parachute, ADS-B, Stall warning system, Handheld GPS
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
- Age
- 37
- Injuries
- None
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land, Single-engine sea
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Unknown
- Last flight review
- April 14, 2021
- Seat
- Right
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 571 total · 4.2 in this make and model · 46.6 as pilot in command · 1,080.9 in the last 90 days · 27 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 5,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 79 °F, dew point 79 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.11 inHg
- Observed at
- KMTC, 8 nm away
- METAR
- METAR KMTC 282256Z 00000KT 10SM -SHRA SCT040 BKN050 BKN250 26/26 A3011 RMK AO2A LTG DSNT NW SHRAB24 CB 12NW MOV NE SLP197 P0011 T02600260 $=
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on February 9, 2022, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 10.8 MB 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.