Cessna 152 N4844H

Summary

On 14 May 2013 at about 17:00 local time, a Cessna 152 registered N4844H, operated by Empire Aviation, was involved in an accident near Oxford, North Carolina, 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

14 May 2013 at 17:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Oxford, North Carolina, United States

Nearest airport

Henderson-Oxford Airport (HNZ)

Coordinates

35.3614, -78.5292

Aircraft

Cessna 152

Registration

N4844H

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Empire Aviation

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Oxford → Oxford

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA13CA246

Nobody was injured.

The student pilot’s improper 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 student pilot was performing a supervised solo flight in the airport traffic pattern. Following an uneventful circuit around the traffic pattern, and while on final approach to the runway, the pilot held the airplane in a nose-low attitude in order to avoid losing airspeed. The pilot then flared the airplane “too late,” and the nose landing gear impacted the runway hard, resulting in substantial damage to the engine firewall. The pilot did not report any pre-impact mechanical anomalies of the airplane, nor were any discovered during post-accident examination of the airframe.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.