- Date
- August 21, 2025, 07:40 local (13:40 UTC)
- Place
- Air Force Academy, CO
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Prior to flight
- Aircraft
- N1401ECessna 172
- Defining event
- Prior to flight: Preflight or dispatch event
- 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
- 20250821011129A
- Case key
- 200835
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 failure to perform an adequate preflight inspection.
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 student pilot departed on a solo flight, and after takeoff, he saw the airplane’s wheel chocks hanging on the right wing strut. Due to the proximity of the chocks to the wing flaps, a no-flap landing was performed. The airplane landed without further incident. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed the underside of the right wing had been struck numerous times by the wheel chocks which resulted in substantial damage to a wing rib. The flight school allowed for the storage of wheel chocks on the wing struts, then relying on the pilot to stow them inside the airplane during the preflight inspection. Following the accident, the flight school manager prohibited this practice and the chocks would be stowed inside the airplane when not in use.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N1401E
- Reported as
- Cessna 172 (N)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17270986
- Built
- 1978
- Airframe hours
- 14,924
- Engine
- Lycoming O-360-A4M, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- United States Air Force Aero Club
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · July 24, 2025
- Departed
- KAFF · USAF Academy, CO
- Flight plan
- VFR
- Airport
- KAFF · Usaf Academy Davis Airfield, runway 34C, 4,501 × 75 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- ADS-B, Electronic multifunction display
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
- 19
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 1, Without waivers/limitations
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 63 total · 22.8 in this make and model · 8.48 as pilot in command · 29.4 in the last 90 days · 15.5 in the last 30 days · 0.8 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 10° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 63 °F, dew point 46 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.30 inHg
- Observed at
- KAFF
- METAR
- KAFF 211355Z AUTO 01004KT 10SM CLR 17/08 A3030 RMK AO2 SLP163 T01650082
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on September 18, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 3.1 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.