- Date
- December 5, 1993, 10:15 local (16:15 UTC)
- Place
- Denton, TX
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N2360APiper PA-38-112
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report August 1, 1994
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19931205046079A
- Case key
- 18974
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 cause was the pilot's failure to compensate for existing wind conditions. A factor was the turbulent weather.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The student pilot was cleared for a supervised cross country solo flight. The pilot encountered turbulence and he aborted the cross country flight and elected to land at another airport; during appoach to the intended landing point, he encountered turbulence that made aircraft control difficult. Just prior to crossing the runway threshold, the pilot lost control and impacted the ground 7 feet short of the runway.
Factual narrative
On December 5, 1993, at 1015 central standard time, a Piper PA-38-112, N2360A, was substantially damaged while landing at the Denton Municipal Airport, near Denton, Texas. The student pilot was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the solo instructional flight.
According to the operator, the student pilot had been cleared to conduct a cross country flight from Addison, Texas, to Durant, Oklahoma. The student pilot stated that after becoming airborne, he contacted the flight service station to open his visual flight rules (VFR) flight plan. At that point the pilot was informed that moderate turbulence had been reported for his route of flight ahead of his present position.
The student pilot aborted his cross country flight and elected to land at the Denton Municipal Airport. He further reported that while en route to the intended airport the turbulence increased and he had difficulty controlling the airplane.
An inspection of the accident site by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that the airplane impacted the ground 7 feet short of the runway.
Damage to the airplane consisted of structural damage to the right wing, as well as the collapsing of the nose and right main landing gear. The structural support for the right landing gear attaching point was fractured.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N2360A
- Reported as
- Piper PA-38-112
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 38-78A0653
- Airframe hours
- 3,983
- Engine
- Lycoming O-235-L2C, 112 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- North Dallas Flight School
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · August 9, 1993 · 56 hours before
- Departed
- ADS · Addison, TX
- Destination
- DUA · Durant, OK
- Flight plan
- VFR
- Airport
- DTO · Denton Municipal Airport, runway 17, 5,000 × 150 ft, asphalt
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
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 30 total · 30 in this make and model · 9 as pilot in command · 24 in the last 90 days · 9 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.