- Date
- March 9, 2025, 11:30 local (15:30 UTC)
- Place
- Brooksville, FL · KBKV Airport
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N740SPCessna 172
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Abnormal runway contact
- 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
- 20250309008809A
- Case key
- 199882
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 pilot’s improper landing flare, which resulted in a hard, bounced landing and substantial damage to the airplane’s fuselage.
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 on a solo instructional flight in the airport traffic pattern. She approached the runway and described that the airplane touched down on both main landing gear and that the nosewheel touched down almost immediately thereafter. The airplane then bounced three times, which each bounce being harder than the last. After the last bounce, the pilot taxied off the runway uneventfully. The underside of the airplane’s fuselage was substantially damaged during the accident sequence. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N740SP
- Reported as
- Cessna 172 (S)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 172S8671
- Built
- 2000
- Airframe hours
- 8,402.6
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-360-L2A, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- American Aviation Flight Academy LLC.
- Registered owner
- Jet Air Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Utility; Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · February 28, 2025
- Departed
- BKV · Brooksville, FL
- Destination
- BKV · Brooksville, FL
- Airport
- BKV · Brooksville-Tampa Bay Rgnl, runway 21, 4,200 × 150 ft, concrete
- Equipment
- Stall warning system, ADS-B
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
- 22
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 1, Without waivers/limitations
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 63 total · 63 in this make and model · 5 in the last 90 days · 3 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 230° at 6 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 3,100 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 79 °F, dew point 68 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.02 inHg
- Observed at
- KBKV
- METAR
- SPECI KBKV 091536Z 23006KT 10SM SCT021 OVC031 26/20 A3002 RMK AO2 T02560200=
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on August 21, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 3.5 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 N740SP · 2
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.