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LAX94LA154 · Cessna 172N

4 Mar 1994 · Prescott, AZ, United States

Embry Riddle Aeronautical Univ Cessna 172N · Accident: hard landing

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Event

NTSB case
LAX94LA154
Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
Completed
API-reported fatalities
0 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
0
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
General aviation
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Visual Meteorological Cond

Cessna 172N

Aircraft type
Cessna 172
Category
Airplane
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
N487ER
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded
Aircraft age
Not recorded
Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
Part 91: General Aviation
Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
Landing · flare/touchdown
First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
Hard landing
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Dual student › Directional control, not maintained
  • Dual student › Flare, delayed
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE INSTRUCTOR AND STUDENT WERE PRACTICING TOUCH-AND GO- OPERATIONS. THE STUDENT CARRIED THE APPROACH ABOUT 1,000 FEET BEYOND THE APPROACH END OF THE RUNWAY, FLARED, AND MADE A VERY HARD TOUCHDOWN, STRIKING THE TAIL OF THE AIRCRAFT ON THE RUNWAY. THE AIRCRAFT BOUNCED AND POWER WAS APPLIED. THE AIRCRAFT CAME DOWN AGAIN WITH THE RIGHT MAIN WHEEL OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE PAVEMENT, AND CONTINUED TO ROLL APPROXIMATELY ANOTHER 1,000 FEET, VEERING LEFT AND RIGHT, BEFORE RUNNING OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY INTO A DITCH AND NOSING OVER IN SOFT DIRT. THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR HAD A TOTAL FLIGHT EXPERIENCE OF 287 HOURS WITH 11 HOURS AS A FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR. THE DUAL PRIMARY STUDENT HAD A TOTAL TIME OF 13 HOURS OF DUAL INSTRUCTION.

Probable cause

THE STUDENT PILOT'S DELAYED FLARE AND FAILURE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT, AND THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR'S INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF THE FLIGHT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX94LA154
Event ID
20001206X00927
Case number
LAX94LA154
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
  • Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
  • Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: aa6f82cefa80cf4d8e436f972fea506f9bfac490eb05259ae93c4aedee7eb641; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:03:57.296Z.