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GAA19CA137 · Cessna 172 S

15 Feb 2019 · Sanford, FL, United States

Cessna 172 S · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing

From Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) to Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB)

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Event

NTSB case
GAA19CA137
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
Unknown
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 172 S

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
N572ND
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), Sanford, FLTo Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), Sanford, FL
Aircraft age
About 10 years (built 2009)
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
Defining eventThe 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
Loss of control on ground
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

  • Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
  • Personnel issues › Task performance

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The solo student pilot reported that, during final approach to land, he realized that the airplane was too high and that he had not added "enough flare." The airplane landed nosewheel first during the touchdown and then started to porpoise. The student conducted a go-around, entered the traffic pattern, and landed without further incident.

The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage aft of the firewall.

The student reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.

About the time of the accident, the wind was from 100° at 3 knots, and the pilot was landing the airplane on runway 27L.

Probable cause

The student pilot's failure maintain the proper pitch attitude during landing, which resulted in the airplane porpoising.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record GAA19CA137
Event ID
20190216X00654
Case number
GAA19CA137
Dataset
full-current
Source SHA-256
5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, coordinates. 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: 593245a64c8b29a084f9cf9bd4b5bb687d253e7ed69f70ee87dffe71cea0d354; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:36:04.049Z.