- Date
- August 3, 2013, 11:45 local (15:45 UTC)
- Place
- Knoxville, TN
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N737PDCessna 172N
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Hard landing
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report November 19, 2013
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20130803019129A
- Case key
- 88005
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 and improper recovery from a bounced landing.
Findings · 3
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 solo student pilot reported that she was practicing takeoffs and landings. During landing, the airplane touched down hard and bounced back into the air. It then stalled and porpoised several times, before the nosegear collapsed and the airplane came to rest upright on the runway. The student pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions with the airplane and examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector did not reveal any. The inspector observed damage to the propeller, nosegear assembly, and firewall. The recorded weather near the accident site, about the time of the accident, was a headwind at 8 knots.
Factual narrative
The solo student pilot reported that she was practicing takeoffs and landings. During landing, the airplane touched down hard and bounced back into the air. It then stalled and porpoised several times, before the nosegear collapsed and the airplane came to rest upright on the runway. The student pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions with the airplane and examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector did not reveal any. The inspector observed damage to the propeller, nosegear assembly, and firewall. The recorded weather near the accident site, about the time of the accident, was a headwind at 8 knots.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N737PD
- Reported as
- Cessna 172N
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17269561
- Built
- 1977
- Airframe hours
- 9,993
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320, 160 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Knox Flight Training
- Registered owner
- Unlimited Aviation Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · July 19, 2013 · 54 hours before
- Departed
- DKX · Knoxville, TN
- Destination
- DKX · Knoxville, TN
- Airport
- DKX · Knoxville Downtown Island, runway 26, 3,499 × 75 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- Stall warning system
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
- 55
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, With waivers/limitations
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 36 total · 36 in this make and model · 1 as pilot in command · 6 in the last 90 days · 1 in the last 30 days · 0 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 250° at 8 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 25,000 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 81 °F, dew point 66 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.05 inHg
- Observed at
- TYS, 12 nm away
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on November 7, 2013, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 1.1 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.