CEN09LA586 · Cessna 172S

During a solo cross-country flight, the private pilot landed and shut down the airplane at two airports before returning to the initial airport of departure. During refueling after the end of the entire cross-country flight, a lineman noticed that the propeller tip was bent aft. He notified dispatch immediately, and dispatch reported that the damage had not been reported by anyone. During the maintenance turnaround of the airplane, the engine firewall was also found to be damaged. The private pilot was contacted later and indicated that all three landings of the cross-country flight were normal, and he did not know when the damage occurred. However, he reported that he ballooned during the first landing. He also reported that prior to departing from the second airport, he taxied over a rough area and heard a "bing." He reported feeling a vibration in the airplane during the final leg of the cross-country flight. An instructor pilot who had flown in the airplane prior to the solo cross-country flight stated that he was confident that no hard landing damage had occurred on that previous instruction flight. The damage to the firewall and the propeller is consistent with a hard landing during one of the legs of the solo cross-country flight.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset