- Date
- August 18, 2025, 17:05 local (Aug 19, 2025, 00:05 UTC)
- Place
- Albany, OR · S12
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N20490Cessna 172M
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Abnormal runway contact
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report October 30, 2025
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Western Pacific Region
- Parties
- Federal Aviation Administration
- FAA report
- 20250818015019A
- Case key
- 201731
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 pilot’s improper landing flare and subsequent improper recovery from a bounced landing.
Findings · 3
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 pilot reported that, during landing, the airplane bounced, and the pilot attempted to hold the airplane level to bleed off airspeed. The airplane then bounced three more times, and its pitch increased after each bounce. After the fourth bounce, the airplane ballooned, and the pilot applied back pressure to the yoke. Subsequently, the airplane’s pitch decreased rapidly, and the airplane impacted the runway surface in a nose low attitude. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the forward fuselage. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operations.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N20490
- Reported as
- Cessna 172M
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17261333
- Built
- 1973
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320 E2D, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · July 16, 2025
- Departed
- CVO · Corvallis, OR
- Destination
- Same as departure
- Airport
- S12 · Albany Municipal Airport, runway 34, 3,004 × 75 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
- Pilot
- Age
- 70
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, With waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- June 16, 2025
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 4-point
- Flight hours
- 720.2 total · 143.6 in this make and model · 302.5 as pilot in command · 32.4 in the last 90 days · 3.3 in the last 30 days · 0.2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 210° at 9 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 4,800 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 63 °F, dew point 54 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.01 inHg
- Turbulence
- Light
- Observed at
- KEUG, 31 nm away
- METAR
- METAR KEUG 180954Z AUTO 21009KT 10SM OVC048 17/12 A3001 RMK AO2 SLP160 T01670117=
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on November 4, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 7.5 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.