Accident Cessna 172R N989AV,
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ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 202054
 
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Date:Wednesday 10 March 1999
Time:10:02 LT
Type:Silhouette image of generic C172 model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different    
Cessna 172R
Owner/operator:Western Michigan University
Registration: N989AV
MSN: 17280598
Year of manufacture:1998
Total airframe hrs:82 hours
Engine model:Lycoming IO-360-L2A
Fatalities:Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage: Substantial
Category:Accident
Location:Battle Creek, MI -   United States of America
Phase: Landing
Nature:Training
Departure airport:(KBTL)
Destination airport:
Investigating agency: NTSB
Confidence Rating: Accident investigation report completed and information captured
Narrative:
The pilot reported the airplane touchdown a couple of feet left of the centerline. He stated,... 'I immediately noticed that the aircraft was starting to skid to the left. I immediately pushed the right rudder but there seemed to be no response to move it back to the right.' The pilot reported that as the aircraft slid to the left, into the deeper snow, the airplane pivoted to the left, the propeller impacted the snowbank, and the airplane nosed over coming to rest inverted. A witness to the accident described the runway condition as, 'Runway 31 appeared to have been ploughed but was covered in snow with no blacktop [visible].' Inspection of the wreckage revealed no anomalies with the airframe, flight controls, or engine. The pilot had a total time of 15.4 hours, of which 13.8 hours were dual instruction and 1.6 hours were pilot-in-command. The accident flight was the pilot's third flight as pilot-in-command. The Duty Instructor for that morning had determined that the runway conditions should be checked before students could solo. The Duty Instructor placed a notification in the dispatch room stating, 'No solos until the runway has been checked.' The student pilot's instructor made the decision not to sign the student off for solo until the runway conditions improved and were checked. Later in the morning, the school's dispatch was notified by an instructor, who was flying in the traffic pattern, that, '...solo operation would not be a problem if one did not lock up the brakes.' The student's flight instructor did not communicate with the Duty Instructor about the runway conditions, and released the student pilot for solo operations.

Probable Cause: the loss of directional control by the pilot. Factors to the accident were the lack of total experience of the pilot, the snow covered runway condition, the snowbank, and the flight instructor not verifying the runway snow removal with the Duty Instructor prior to releasing the student pilot for solo operations.

Accident investigation:
cover
  
Investigating agency: NTSB
Report number: CHI99LA091
Status: Investigation completed
Duration: 1 year and 7 months
Download report: Final report

Sources:

NTSB CHI99LA091

History of this aircraft

Other occurrences involving this aircraft
9 November 2012 ZS-SPI Guzto Property Holdings 2 Between Mokopane and Polokwane, Limpopo w/o

Location

Revision history:

Date/timeContributorUpdates
26-Nov-2017 10:55 ASN Update Bot Added
08-Apr-2024 08:53 ASN Update Bot Updated [Time, Other fatalities, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative, Category, Accident report]

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