- Date
- July 23, 1999, 18:30 local (22:30 UTC)
- Place
- Dover, DE
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N6017RCessna 172G
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report December 4, 2000
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19990723009649A
- Case key
- 46971
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 execute a go-around. Factors include excessive airspeed on the final approach, and the student pilot's attempt to land beyond a safe touchdown point.
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 landed the airplane long and fast, and could not stop it before it went off the end of the runway and into some trees. The pilot was supposed to initiate a go-around once the airplane passed a prescribed mark on the runway, but did not do so.
Factual narrative
On July 23, 1999, about 1830 Eastern Daylight Time, a Cessna 172G, N6017R, was destroyed when it overran the runway and impacted trees at Chandelle Estates Airport (0N4), Dover, Delaware. The student pilot was uninjured, and visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. No flight plan was filed for the local instructional solo flight, which was conducted under 14 CFR Part 91.
According to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Inspector, the student pilot was on his third solo flight, when he "landed long and fast" on Runway 4. The student pilot could not stop the airplane before it went off the end of the runway, and then into some trees.
The student pilot wrote that he "had glide rate set up, and 30 degrees flaps on final." During the landing, the airplane touched down once, then "bounced and floated. I ran out of runway and headed for [a] tree...."
In a separate statement, the operator wrote that the student pilot did not follow a flight school directive, which required him to initiate a go-around after reaching a prescribed mark on the runway.
About 30 minutes after the accident, weather recorded at an airport 4 miles to the south included winds from 110 degrees magnetic, at 5 knots.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N6017R
- Reported as
- Cessna 172G
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17253686
- Airframe hours
- 4,231
- Engine
- Continental O-300D, 145 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Jim Strong Aviation, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Utility
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · July 12, 1999 · 56 hours before
- Departed
- 0N4
- Airport
- 0N4 · Chandelle Estates, runway 4, 2,533 × 28 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
- 36
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 23 total · 22 in this make and model · 1 as pilot in command · 21 in the last 90 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 110° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 4 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 20,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 84 °F, dew point 75 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- DOV, 4 nm away
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 N6017R · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.