- Date
- March 7, 2015, 15:18 local (20:18 UTC)
- Place
- Richmond, VA
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N144MECessna 172S
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Hard landing
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report August 11, 2015
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20150307002959A
- Case key
- 90845
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 inadequate landing flare which resulted in a hard landing and substantial damage to the airplane.
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
During a full stop landing at an airport on the second leg of a multiple leg cross country flight, the student pilot landed, the airplane bounced, and then touched down again, hard on the nose landing gear. The student pilot then lost directional control, the airplane drifted towards the left side of the runway, and then came to rest. Examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that the airplane had incurred substantial damage. The tip of one propeller blade was bent, the nose wheel landing gear tire was flat, the cabin floor was wrinkled, the belly skin of the fuselage was wrinkled, and the firewall was buckled. The student pilot was uninjured, and he advised that he had no mechanical problems prior to the accident.
Factual narrative
During a full stop landing at an airport on the second leg of a multiple leg cross country flight, the student pilot landed, the airplane bounced, and then touched down again, hard on the nose landing gear. The student pilot then lost directional control, the airplane drifted towards the left side of the runway, and then came to rest. Examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that the airplane had incurred substantial damage. The tip of one propeller blade was bent, the nose wheel landing gear tire was flat, the cabin floor was wrinkled, the belly skin of the fuselage was wrinkled, and the firewall was buckled. The student pilot was uninjured, and he advised that he had no mechanical problems prior to the accident.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N144ME
- Reported as
- Cessna 172S
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 172S8428
- Built
- 2000
- Airframe hours
- 3,838
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-360-L2A, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- AV-ED Flight School Inc.
- Registered owner
- Bell Enterprises Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · December 20, 2014
- Departed
- CJR · Culpeper, VA
- Destination
- RIC · Richmond, VA
- Airport
- RIC · Richmond International, runway 20, 6,607 × 150 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
- Student pilot
- Age
- 50
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Without waivers/limitations
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 37 total · 37 in this make and model · 8 as pilot in command · 7 in the last 90 days · 7 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 250° at 11 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 54 °F, dew point 21 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.22 inHg
- Observed at
- RIC
Docket · 4
The files NTSB released with the investigation on July 28, 2015, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 1.7 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.
Other investigations on N144ME · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.