Cessna 172 N97116

Summary

On 23 August 2017 at about 21:30 local time, a Cessna 172 registered N97116 was involved in an accident near Gulf Shores, Alabama, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

23 August 2017 at 21:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Gulf Shores, Alabama, United States

Nearest airport

Jack Edwards (JKA)

Coordinates

30.2461, -87.7008

Aircraft

Cessna 172

Registration

N97116

Category

Airplane

Year built

1984

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Pensacola → Gulf Shores

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA17LA319

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's improper landing flare, which resulted in a hard landing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The commercial helicopter pilot, who was enrolled in transition training for airplanes, stated that he made a normal approach to land the airplane, but when he pulled back on the control yoke, the nose of the airplane did not come up as expected. The airplane had a flat attitude, landed hard, and bounced four or five times, which resulted in damage to the firewall, the nosewheel, and both propeller blades. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the control yoke had minimal movement due to the upper yoke control tubes at the chain sprocket binding against the aluminum channel brace due to the bent firewall. The examination also found that the elevator trim tab cable had slack and was not rigged correctly, which was not due to the hard landing: when the trim tab wheel was moved, the cable's center travel block would catch on the aft tail cone bulkhead. However, subsequent examination of the airplane did not reveal any evidence of a preimpact elevator control problem, despite the rigging of the elevator trim tab cable. A student pilot who had flown the airplane before the accident flight had not reported any issues with landing the airplane. At the time of the accident, the pilot had accrued 29 hours of flight experience in single-engine airplanes. About 1 month after the accident, the pilot flew with a Federal Aviation Administration designated pilot examiner (DPE) and, according to the DPE, executed several landings that had a flat attitude versus a nose-high attitude. On one landing, the airplane bounced and then ballooned, which resulted in the DPE taking control of the airplane. The DPE later spoke with the pilot's flight instructor, who confirmed that the pilot tended to not properly flare on landing. Although the elevator trim tab cable was not rigged correctly, it did not impede the use of the elevator or the pilot's ability to properly flare the airplane for a safe landing. Thus, it is likely that the pilot did not flare properly, which resulted in a hard landing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.