Cessna 172N N733XD

Summary

On 16 May 2010 at about 13:25 local time, a Cessna 172N registered N733XD, operated by JEJ Leasing LLC, was involved in an accident near Blue Hill, Maine, United States. 2 people were 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

16 May 2010 at 13:25

Classification

Accident

Location

Blue Hill, Maine, United States

Nearest airport

Blue Hill Airport (07B)

Coordinates

44.4419, -68.5683

Aircraft

Cessna 172N

Registration

N733XD

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

JEJ Leasing LLC

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Bar Harbor → Blue Hill

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA10CA268

Nobody was injured.

The flight instructor’s inability to maintain directional control while landing with gusting winds.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

According to the flight instructor, he was demonstrating a soft-field landing to a grass runway in a tricycle-gear airplane. During the landing roll on runway 34, a “strong wind gust from the right” lifted the airplane’s right wing, and the airplane “slid sideways to the left.” The student pilot noted that the airplane had landed “midline,” and after the gust of wind struck, the nose of the airplane headed left even though the instructor had applied full right rudder and aileron. The airplane’s left wing subsequently grazed small tree branches, then impacted a bigger branch that rotated the airplane counter-clockwise. The airplane came to rest perpendicular to the grass runway, with the airplane’s nose facing into the trees. The airplane’s left wing tip and right wing leading edge were damaged. The flight instructor and the student pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane. Weather, reported about 9 miles east of the accident site, included winds from 320 degrees at 12 knots, gusting 17 knots.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.