- Date
- December 21, 1996, 10:16 local (17:16 UTC)
- Place
- Phoenix, AZ
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N96049Cessna 152
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report September 30, 1997
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19961221042399A
- Case key
- 29705
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 flare and improper recovery from a bounced landing, which resulted in an inadvertent porpoise and subsequent overload failure of the nose gear.
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 on his first solo flight, and had successfully completed two landings. After the third approach, the aircraft touched down on the nose wheel, then it entered a porpoise. The nose gear then collapsed.
Factual narrative
On December 21, 1996, at 1016 hours mountain standard time, a Cessna 152, N96049, porpoised on landing and collapsed the nose landing gear at the Deer Valley Airport, Phoenix, Arizona. The aircraft was owned and operated by Superstition Air Service of Phoenix, and was engaged in a student solo instructional flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The aircraft incurred substantial damage and the student pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. The flight originated from Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona, for a local area instructional flight about 0900 on the day of the accident.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration inspector who responded to the site and interviewed the student, the pilot was on his first solo flight and had completed two landings successfully. On the third approach, the aircraft touched down on the nose wheel and then entered a porpoise. The nose gear then collapsed.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N96049
- Reported as
- Cessna 152
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 15286002
- Engine
- Lycoming O-235-L2C, 110 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Superstition Air Service, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · November 18, 1996 · 58 hours before
- Departed
- FFZ · Mesa, AZ
- Airport
- DVT · Deer Valley, runway 7L, 4,500 × 75 ft, asphalt
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 22
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 31 total · 31 in this make and model · 1 as pilot in command · 31 in the last 90 days · 12 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 120° at 14 knots
- Visibility
- 40 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 16,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 57 °F, dew point 10 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- DVT
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.