- Date
- July 5, 2020, 12:00 local (17:00 UTC)
- Place
- Prattville, AL
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N173MECessna 172
- Defining event
- Landing: Hard landing
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20200705007999A
- Case key
- 101697
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 improper landing flare, which resulted in a hard 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 had not flown recently and reported that he planned to complete a refresher flight. During the first landing of the flight, on the final approach, the airplane's glide path was "too high and too steep," and he flared the airplane too late. The airplane then landed nosewheel first and bounced twice. The pilot aborted the landing, landed again, then returned to his home airport. Postaccident examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that the fuselage was substantially damaged. The student pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N173ME
- Reported as
- Cessna 172 (S)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 172S8455
- Built
- 2000
- Airframe hours
- 9,681.1
- Engine
- Lycoming IO360 L2A, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Box Aviation Inc
- Registered owner
- Box Aviation Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Utility; Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · May 20, 2020 · 101 hours before
- Departed
- MGM · Montgomery, AL
- Destination
- 1A9 · Prattville, AL
- Airport
- 1A9 · Prattville - Grouby Field, runway 09, 5,400 × 100 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- ADS-B, Auto-pilot, 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
- 56
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, With waivers/limitations
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 18.5 total · 18.5 in this make and model · 3 as pilot in command · 5.9 in the last 90 days · 3.7 in the last 30 days · 0 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 90° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Temperature
- 88 °F, dew point 73 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.93 inHg
- Observed at
- 1A9
Docket · 5
The files NTSB released with the investigation on April 12, 2021, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 18.2 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.