- Date
- October 3, 2025, 13:10 local (17:10 UTC)
- Place
- Bluffton, OH · 5G7 Runway 23
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N64203Cessna 172
- Defining event
- Landing: Hard landing
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report December 11, 2025
- 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
- 20251003016569A
- Case key
- 201863
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.
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 practicing solo takeoffs and landings in the airport traffic pattern. During the landing flare of her second traffic pattern circuit, the pilot attempted a landing flare, but instead of holding the airplane’s nosewheel above the runway, she allowed the nose wheel to contact the runway. The pilot then pulled back on the yoke in order to soften the landing, but the airplane climbed and again contacted the runway with the nosewheel first two more times before the airplane came to a stop on the runway. The airplane’s fuselage was substantially damaged during the accident sequence. The pilot stated that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N64203
- Reported as
- Cessna 172 (M)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17265084
- Built
- 1975
- Airframe hours
- 5,196.5
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-E2D, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Bluffton Flying Service
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Utility; Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · August 29, 2025
- Departed
- 5G7 · Bluffton, OH
- Airport
- 5G7 · Bluffton, runway 23, 4,126 × 75 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- 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
- Pilot
- Age
- 17
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 1, With waivers/limitations
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 50 total · 50 in this make and model · 1 as pilot in command · 21 in the last 90 days · 10 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 82 °F, dew point 52 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.24 inHg
- Observed at
- FDY, 12 nm away
- METAR
- KFDY 031653Z AUTO VRB03KT 10SM CLR 28/11 A3024 RMK AO2 SLP233 T02780106=
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on December 11, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 5.3 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.