DEN91LA011 · Cessna 172H
Arkansas Valley Aviation Cessna 172H · Accident: hard landing
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN91LA011
- 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 172H
- 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
- N2665L
- Operator
- Arkansas Valley Aviation
- 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
- Pilot in command › Flare, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A STUDENT PILOT MADE A HARD LANDING ON RUNWAY 15. ACCORDING TO THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR WHO WAS SUPERVISING THIS SOLO FLIGHT, THE PLANE MADE A HARD LANDING, PORPOSIED, AND DEPARTED THE RUNWAY TO THE LEFT. THE PLANE WENT DOWN A FIVE FOOT EMBANKMENT, NOSED OVER, AND CAME TO REST INVERTED OFF THE EAST SIDE OF THE RUNWAY. BOTH WINGS SPARS THE FUSELAGE AND THE VERTICAL STABILIZER WERE DAMAGED. THE FLIGHT INFORMATION PUBLICATION AIRPORT DIRECTORY WARNS OF A FIVE FOOT DROP ALONG THE EAST EDGE OF THE RUNWAY. THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE PLANE TOUCHED DOWN WELL LEFT OF THE CENTER LINE, AND THE NOSE WHEEL IMPACTED HARD ENOUGH TO BREAK THE WHEEL RIM, BLOW OUT THE TIRE AND TUBE AND MADE STEERING DIFFICULT. CALM WINDS PREVAILED DURING THE ENTIRE ACCIDENT SEQUENCE. THERE WERE NO INJURIES.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FLARE PROPERLY DURING LANDING. THE PILOT'S TOTAL LACK OF EXPERIENCE IS A FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN91LA011
- Event ID
- 20001212X24457
- Case number
- DEN91LA011
- 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: 05d2562d72d24f54dff501a7f60a545ac7014e072a5396a4f5104e01a9729609; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:12:20.578Z.