Textron 172S N858AU

Summary

On 27 October 2022 at about 20:09 local time, a Textron 172S registered N858AU, operated by Auburn University, was involved in an accident near Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. 2 people were on board and one had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

27 October 2022 at 20:09

Classification

Accident

Location

Tuskegee, Alabama, United States

Nearest airport

Moton Field (06A)

Coordinates

32.4605, -85.6800

Aircraft

Textron 172S

Registration

N858AU

Category

Airplane

Year built

2018

Engines

1

Operator

Auburn University

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA23LA159

1 person had minor injuries.

The flight instructor’s improper flare, which resulted in a hard landing and subsequent runway excursion.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight instructor was demonstrating a short-field landing to the pilot receiving instruction. The flight instructor reported that, during the landing attempt when the airplane was about 10 to 40 ft above ground level, the airplane’s airspeed decreased, and the sink rate increased. The flight instructor stated that he applied full throttle for a go-around; however, the engine did not respond and may have even further decreased before the airplane landed hard on the runway, resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage. Review of data downloaded from the airplane’s primary flight display revealed that the airplane’s airspeed had decayed from around 50 knots to 25 knots during the landing flare and touchdown, while remaining relatively consistent at around 900 rpm. After touching down the engine power suddenly increased and reached a maximum of 1,800 rpm before then stopping completely about 7 seconds later. The data were not consistent with the flight instructor’s description that the engine power was lost or that the engine did not respond to the throttle inputs during the approach. Rather, the data suggested that the throttle application did not occur until after the airplane had contacted the runway. Following the hard landing, and subsequent runway excursion during which the nose landing gear collapsed, the engine did stop completely, and in his statement the flight instructor expressed surprise that, “…the engine was not producing any sound to indicate it was even running, nonetheless running at the appropriate rate given that the throttle was still set to maximum…” It is possible that this perception may have contributed to the instructor’s recollection of the engine not performing correctly during the accident sequence. Given this information, it is likely that the flight instructor’s improper flare resulted in a hard landing and subsequent runway excursion.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.