- Date
- May 14, 2013, 13:00 local (17:00 UTC)
- Place
- Oxford, NC
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N4844HCessna 152
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Hard landing
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report July 23, 2013
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20130514006919A
- Case key
- 86942
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 flare, which resulted in a hard landing.
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 performing a supervised solo flight in the airport traffic pattern. Following an uneventful circuit around the traffic pattern, and while on final approach to the runway, the pilot held the airplane in a nose-low attitude in order to avoid losing airspeed. The pilot then flared the airplane “too late,” and the nose landing gear impacted the runway hard, resulting in substantial damage to the engine firewall. The pilot did not report any pre-impact mechanical anomalies of the airplane, nor were any discovered during post-accident examination of the airframe.
Factual narrative
The student pilot was performing a supervised solo flight in the airport traffic pattern. Following an uneventful circuit around the traffic pattern, and while on final approach to the runway, the pilot held the airplane in a nose-low attitude in order to avoid losing airspeed. The pilot then flared the airplane “too late,” and the nose landing gear impacted the runway hard, resulting in substantial damage to the engine firewall. The pilot did not report any pre-impact mechanical anomalies of the airplane, nor were any discovered during post-accident examination of the airframe by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N4844H
- Reported as
- Cessna 152
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 15283984
- Airframe hours
- 6,470
- Engine
- Lycoming O-235-L2C, 115 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Empire Aviation
- Registered owner
- Empire Aviation
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Utility
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · February 7, 2013
- Departed
- HNZ · Oxford, NC
- Destination
- HNZ · Oxford, NC
- Airport
- HNZ · Henderson-Oxford Airport, runway 24, 5,002 × 97 ft, asphalt
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
- 80
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, With waivers/limitations
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 80 total · 80 in this make and model · 22 in the last 90 days · 10 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 64 °F, dew point 32 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.20 inHg
- Observed at
- HNZ
Docket · 5
The files NTSB released with the investigation on June 12, 2013, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 3.7 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.