- Date
- July 17, 1994, 14:24 local (19:24 UTC)
- Place
- Alton, IL
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N3639VCessna 150
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report February 24, 1995
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Case key
- 9595
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 improper recovery from a bounced landing. A factor associated with the accident is the student pilot's misjudged landing flare.
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 attempting a full stop landing after a series of touch-and-go landings. The student's flight instructor wrote in his report to the NTSB that the student related to him immediately after the accident that he made a full flap approach and failed to flare. The airplane landed hard, bounced, landed hard again, bounced again, and finally landed hard on the nosewheel, collapsing the nose gear.
Factual narrative
On July 17, 1994, about 1424 central daylight time, a Cessna 150 airplane, N3639V, sustained substantial damage during a full stop landing at the St. Louis Regional Airport, Alton, Illinois. The solo student pilot reported no injury. The local, instructional flight operated without flight plan in visual meteorological conditions.
The student's flight instructor wrote in his report to the NTSB that the student had completed a series of touch-and-go landings, and was making a final, full stop, full flap landing. The flight instructor said that the student told him immediately after the accident that he failed to flare, the airplane landed hard, bounced, landed hard again, bounced, and finally landed hard on the nosewheel, collapsing the nose gear.
No preimpact mechanical anomaly was reported or discovered during the postaccident inspection.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N3639V
- Reported as
- Cessna 150
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 15076572
- Engine
- Continental O-200A, 100 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Horizon Air Academy
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal; Special, Provisional (Special); Standard, Utility
- Airport
- ALN · St. Louis Regional, runway 29, 8,100 × 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
- Flight hours
- 35 total · 35 in this make and model · 12 as pilot in command · 8 in the last 90 days · 4 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 320° at 8 knots
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 4,500 ft broken
- Temperature
- 84 °F, dew point 68 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- ANL