172P crash at my field

[Ronbonjovi]

Went to my home field, KCEU, yesterday and flew N733VS in some nice crosswind conditions. Needed some practice and was quite happy with my performance. Tied up the airplane after logging an hour and then looked over to the end of the ramp and saw this mess.

Did some digging and found the aviation safety report with a video of the incident.

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=223672

Only one person suffered minor injuries. I hate bringing up accidents as I am not trying to judge the pilot and what they did, but rather learn from it. Looks like he tried to go around last minute when the plane started to head off the runway. Heavy brakes would have maybe led to some landing gear damage, bent rim, blown tires, etc but would have been a better decision than trying to go around halfway off the runway.

 

[luvflyin]

Put er down right in a parkin spot. If he'd a spun it from just a few feet higher he'd a been lined right up

 

[Clip4]

Another accident compounded by insufficient training on multiple levels including the proper procedure when the plane departs the runway.

 

[Kenny Phillips]

I think that maneuver is called the groundelle.

 

[kaiser]

I had oscillations happen to me just the other week on the landing roll (with the instructor in the right seat haha). I suspect a big puff of breeze hit the rudder on the landing roll after most of the rudder authority had dissipated. It's a wild ride but I kept it on the grey stuff.

 

[sarangan]

Went to my home field, KCEU, yesterday and flew N733VS in some nice crosswind conditions. Needed some practice and was quite happy with my performance. Tied up the airplane after logging an hour and then looked over to the end of the ramp and saw this mess.

Did some digging and found the aviation safety report with a video of the incident.

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=223672

Only one person suffered minor injuries. I hate bringing up accidents as I am not trying to judge the pilot and what they did, but rather learn from it. Looks like he tried to go around last minute when the plane started to head off the runway. Heavy brakes would have maybe led to some landing gear damage, bent rim, blown tires, etc but would have been a better decision than trying to go around halfway off the runway.

Wow. That video is mind boggling. It is a low-altitude stall spin, but what saved the pilot is probably that the altitude was too low to have much impact energy. Unbelievable!

 

[RyanB]

By the looks of the video, it appears that the accident chain began by a botched landing with improper crosswind control inputs.

He’s lucky that the wing drop didn’t occur while the airplane was higher or else the outcome would not have been so good. Glad he’s not seriously injured. The airplane is the insurance company’s now.

 

[Kenny Phillips]

I had oscillations happen to me just the other week on the landing roll (with the instructor in the right seat haha). I suspect a big puff of breeze hit the rudder on the landing roll after most of the rudder authority had dissipated. It's a wild ride but I kept it on the grey stuff.

Check the tire pressures if that happens; when I bent a propeller, that was a contributing factor.

 

[benyflyguy]

There was a moment there where it looked like they were going to almost pull it off.

 

[PaulS]

"There goes that *******." Lol, sounds like the videographer was thinking there might be a problem. Looks like a 10+ knot direct cross wind according to the windsock.

 

[Skyrys62]

There was a moment there where it looked like they were going to almost pull it off.

Agree...from the video, looked like at last minute he pulled back and stalled/spun...which made me wonder if there is a building or something just out of the picture he thought he had to go over instead of around.
Panic does bad things.
Pure speculation on my part, just wondering.

 

[Stingray Don]

Well, winglets are all the rage....

 

[Zeldman]

Another accident compounded by insufficient training on multiple levels including the proper procedure when the plane departs the runway.

Watch the elevator. I am thinking panic may have played a bigger part after things started going wrong. Hard to teach how to not panic when in a situation that this developed into. And as Skyrys62 mentioned, there might have been something like a big hanger getting bigger in the wind screen. Anyone here familiar with this airport.??

 

[Ronbonjovi]

"There goes that *******." Lol, sounds like the videographer was thinking there might be a problem. Looks like a 10+ knot direct cross wind according to the windsock.

I had the volume muted when I first watched it. You really have to strain to hear it but that is hilarious. I have an idea of who it could be.

 

[Ronbonjovi]

Watch the elevator. I am thinking panic played a bigger part after things started going wrong. Hard to teach how to not panic when in a situation that this developed into. And as Skyrys62 mentioned, there might have been something like a big hanger getting bigger in the wind screen. Anyone here familiar with this airport.??

The main maintenance hangar is where the security camera is mounted to. If you went to the right of the shell sign it is an access road that runs around the maintenance hangar. Behind the Cessna on the ground (not the wrecked one) are the main fuel tanks for refilling the JET A truck. There are tall trees maybe 1000 feet in front of the airplane in the direction it was pointing before it spun.

 

[Zeldman]

The main maintenance hangar is where the security camera is mounted to. If you went to the right of the shell sign it is an access road that runs around the maintenance hangar. Behind the Cessna on the ground (not the wrecked one) are the main fuel tanks for refilling the JET A truck. There are tall trees maybe 1000 feet in front of the airplane in the direction it was pointing before it spun.

Ok, thanks, That helps me get a better idea of the area.

 

[RyanB]

"There goes that *******." Lol, sounds like the videographer was thinking there might be a problem.

Hard to make out what they’re saying, but that videographer is actually airport surveillance cameras.

 

[dmspilot]

Video is truly impressive, though not in a good way obviously. Looks like he narrowly missed crashing a second plane.

 

[PaulS]

Hard to make out what they’re saying, but that videographer is actually airport surveillance cameras.

I heard it clearly with head phones on, he says it in a whisper.


Edit, I see what you mean now, it's a video of a surveillance playback. Still though, sounds like there may be some familiarity.

 

[Bill]

Tough plane, I thought it held up well to being dropped in from 30ft or so.

 

[PaulS]

After watching that video over and over, it just reinforces that you can't force an airplane to fly before it is ready and you have to use proper crosswind techniques within your proficiency, pulling back on the stick will not help if you are too slow to start. If he had stayed coordinated he probably would have just mushed into the ground at the end.

I blew a short field landing demonstration yesterday. Long story short I was too fast, I lost focus on my aiming spot and floated down the runway. While in the flare, I just sat there for what seemed like 5 minutes thinking "this is how airplanes get wrecked, pilots get the urge to fix it by putting the airplane down resulting in a porpoise." I beat that out of my.... or I should say, one of my instructors beat that urge out of my psyche a long time ago. I held back pressure, greased it on, and failed the demonstration. Were it not a 7,000 foot runway I would have gone around. I did it correctly today.

 

[ChemGuy]

After seeing the video all I can say is...
Whiskey
Tango
Foxtrot?!?

 

[F01LA]

Wow, the 172 is truly an amazing airplane. A pilot is doing about everything possible to kill himself and the plane, and in response he gets (relatively) gracefully dropped into a parking spot at low speed.

 

[RyanShort1]

50-100 more feet and that would've been fatal. I've seen the result, sadly.

 

[1RTK1]

He should buy a lottery ticket

 

[Salty]

That video shows just how hard you have to work to stall one of these things.

 

[Salty]

50-100 more feet and that would've been fatal. I've seen the result, sadly.

50-100 more feet and getting out of bed would be fatal.

 

[RyanB]

Would you say it’s a total loss? Looks like it could be salvageable if placed into the right hands.

New firewall forward & left wing. I’m sure there’s interior damage that we cant see too.

 

[flyer770]

I'm a believer in shoulder harnesses now after that video.

 

[apr911]

The plane clearly stalls at 15 seconds. As the plane drops the wing starts flying for a moment and the pilot catches it but applies back elevator causing a secondary stall and early stages of a spin.

That first stall might have been recoverable but it depends on what was in that direction off screen (I know a poster commented there are the fuel tanks and some tree's about 1000 ft in that direction)... Still it is extremely difficult to overcome human nature's desire to yank back on the stick and it would take many many hours of stall awareness and/or full stall training at altitude to instill the proper procedure in you to a degree that you perform that way in the moment at low altitude such as this (one of the problems of contrived scenarios). It would have to become muscle memory and even then it's hard to say as sometimes recovery is impossible. That's one of the reasons I prefer teaching methodologies that show flying the stall over full recovery.

 

[Clip4]

Watch the elevator. I am thinking panic may have played a bigger part after things started going wrong. Hard to teach how to not panic when in a situation that this developed into. And as Skyrys62 mentioned, there might have been something like a big hanger getting bigger in the wind screen. Anyone here familiar with this airport.??

Accidents are a chain of events.

The proper procedure to be taught for departing the runway is to close the throttle, shut every thing down and call someone to tug you in. They are lucky to survive.

 

[RyanShort1]

The plane clearly stalls at 15 seconds. As the plane drops the wing starts flying for a moment and the pilot catches it but applies back elevator causing a secondary stall and early stages of a spin.

That first stall might have been recoverable but it depends on what was in that direction off screen (I know a poster commented there are the fuel tanks and some tree's about 1000 ft in that direction)... Still it is extremely difficult to overcome human nature's desire to yank back on the stick and it would take many many hours of stall awareness and/or full stall training at altitude to instill the proper procedure in you to a degree that you perform that way in the moment at low altitude such as this (one of the problems of contrived scenarios). It would have to become muscle memory and even then it's hard to say as sometimes recovery is impossible. That's one of the reasons I prefer teaching methodologies that show flying the stall over full recovery.

That's also why things like Falling Leaf and lots of rudder practice is important. Flew with a pilot a few months back who flat out wasn't using his feet of feeling his coordination - and he had over 300 hours. Some of the schools out there are turning out some real problem pilots, and I blame that on the instructors, not the pilots.

 

[Huckster79]

I'm a believer in shoulder harnesses now after that video.

I had them installed a few weeks back... they were not expensive, especially considering that the cost of not having them installed means even a non major accident can mean ur foreheads too smashed for an open casket and a very fixable plane will now be sold as part of your estate...

I bought two hooker harnesses and paid for them to be installed... 0.8 AMU

 

[Skyrys62]

But when are you going to have shoulder harnesses installed?

After her gets back from picking the girls up in Vegas....

Unless he's too tired.

 

[RyanB]

After her gets back from picking the girls up in Vegas....

Unless he's too tired.

I wouldn’t mind picking up girls in Vegas.......

 

[1RTK1]

I wouldn’t mind picking up girls in Vegas.......

Gotta watch out, you might end up coming back with something more than just empty pockects

 

[benyflyguy]

Gotta watch out, you might end up coming back with something more than just empty pockects

Nothing a little penicillin won’t fix

 

[N1120A]

Another lucky thing is he didn't land on top of that aircraft sitting on the ramp right next to where he "landed." That would have compounded things tremendously.

 

[FlyingTiger]

He ended up directing into a decent head wind which definitely helped. Looked like he could of set it down in the parking lot with minimal roll right before pulling up and stalling. Thankfully the plane was really slow and not high enough for vertical speed to build up to fatal levels.