Cessna 172 N173ME

Summary

On 5 July 2020 at about 17:00 local time, a Cessna 172 registered N173ME, operated by Box Aviation Inc, was involved in an accident near Prattville, 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

5 July 2020 at 17:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Prattville, Alabama, United States

Nearest airport

Prattville - Grouby Field (1A9)

Coordinates

32.4386, -86.5178

Aircraft

Cessna 172

Registration

N173ME

Category

Airplane

Year built

2000

Engines

1

Operator

Box Aviation Inc

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Montgomery → Prattville

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA20CA263

Nobody was injured.

The student pilot's failure 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 solo student pilot had not flown recently and reported that he planned to complete a refresher flight. During the first landing of the flight, on the final approach, the airplane's glide path was "too high and too steep," and he flared the airplane too late. The airplane then landed nosewheel first and bounced twice. The pilot aborted the landing, landed again, then returned to his home airport. Postaccident examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that the fuselage was substantially damaged. The student pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.