- Date
- June 6, 2015, 15:30 local (20:30 UTC)
- Place
- Addison, TX
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N178AFCessna 172R
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Hard landing
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report August 12, 2015
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- General Aviation Accidents
- Parties
- FAA San Antonio FSDO
- FAA report
- 20150606010179A
- Case key
- 91553
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 to maintain pitch control during the landing touchdown, resulting in a hard 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 solo student pilot reported that during the first landing touchdown, the airplane porpoised, and she elected to abort the landing. She reported that during the second landing touchdown at a different airport, the airplane "started to bounce very hard." A postflight inspection revealed substantial damage to the firewall and to the floor panels underneath the rudder pedals. The student pilot reported no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
Factual narrative
The solo student pilot reported that during the first landing touchdown, the airplane porpoised, and she elected to abort the landing. She reported that during the second landing touchdown at a different airport, the airplane "started to bounce very hard." A postflight inspection revealed substantial damage to the firewall and to the floor panels underneath the rudder pedals. The student pilot reported no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N178AF
- Reported as
- Cessna 172R (R)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17281177
- Built
- 2006
- Airframe hours
- 10,172.7
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-360, 160 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · May 29, 2015
- Departed
- SLR · Sulphur Springs, TX
- Destination
- ADS · Addison, TX
- Airport
- ADS · Addison, runway 33, 7,203 × 100 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- 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
- 19
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 1, With waivers/limitations
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 54 total · 54 in this make and model · 5 as pilot in command · 41 in the last 90 days · 14 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 190° at 7 knots
- Visibility
- 13 statute miles
- Temperature
- 91 °F, dew point 61 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.97 inHg
- Observed at
- KADS
Docket · 4
The files NTSB released with the investigation on August 5, 2015, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 15.8 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 N178AF · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.