- Date
- May 3, 1994, 16:15 local (20:15 UTC)
- Place
- Ellington, CT
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N5369HCessna 152
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report November 18, 1994
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Case key
- 38749
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 recovery from a bounced landing which resulted in a loss of directional control. A factor was the student pilot's imroper landing flare, which resulted in a hard landing.
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 conducting a landing on runway 19. He stated: 'the plane came down faster than I thought. The rear wheels...hit the ground hard causing the plane to balloon...into the air....' The airplane departed the right side of the runway, entered a grass field and nosed over. The runway was 1800 feet long and 50 feet wide.
Factual narrative
On Tuesday, May 3, 1994 at 1615 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 152, N5359H, registered to Northstar Aero Services, Inc., and piloted by John O. Zimmer, sustained substantial damage during a landing at the Ellington Airport, Ellington, Connecticut. The pilot was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed. The flight was being conducted under 49 CFR Part 91.
The student pilot was performing a landing on runway 19, which was 1800 feet long and 50 feet wide. In his report, he stated:
The rear wheels of the aircraft hit the ground hard causing the plane to balloon back up into the air about 15'. I tried to soften the landing by giving the plane a little power. The aircraft then began to drift to the left so I gave it some right rudder....The aircraft...came down hard on the runway....the plane drifted off the runway into the grass....into a field. The aircraft flipped over...
Federal Aviation Administration Inspector, A.G. Olmstead, Jr., stated in a report:
No physical evidence could be found at the site to show a mechanical failure of brakes or steering that would have allowed the aircraft to veer off the runway.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N5369H
- Reported as
- Cessna 152
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 15284094
- Engine
- Continental O-235-L2C, 110 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Northstar Aero Services, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Airport
- 7B9 · Ellington, runway 19, 1,800 × 50 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
- Age
- 40
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 78 total · 78 in this make and model · 20 as pilot in command · 2 in the last 90 days · 2 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day