- Date
- September 7, 2020, 15:42 local (19:42 UTC)
- Place
- Wilmington, DE
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N19813Cessna 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
- Case key
- 101970
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 landing flare, which resulted in a hard bounced 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 conducting his first solo cross country flight. During the landing flare at the destination airport, he reduced engine power, and the airplane touched down “firmly” then bounced back into the air. It bounced 3 to 4 more times before it came to rest on the runway. The pilot also stated that “each bounce and touch down were worse …. than the previous.” Subsequently, he taxied the airplane to a hangar and egressed without issue. After the accident, an examination of the airframe found that the fuselage was substantially damaged. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N19813
- Reported as
- Cessna 172 (M)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17260776
- Built
- 1972
- Airframe hours
- 6,710.7
- Engine
- Lycoming O-360-A4M, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Boeing Employees Flying Assn Inc
- Registered owner
- Boeing Employees Flying Assn Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · January 29, 2020
- Departed
- WWD · Wilwood, NJ
- Destination
- Same as departure
- Airport
- ILG · New Castle Airport, runway 19, 7,012 × 150 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- Satellite tracking device, ADS-B, 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
- 29
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 1
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 74 total · 61 in this make and model · 5 as pilot in command · 29 in the last 90 days · 11 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 150° at 6 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 81 °F, dew point 59 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.17 inHg
- Observed at
- ILG
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on December 9, 2021, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 6.9 MB in all.