BFO94LA029

Factual narrative

On Saturday, January 22, 1994, at 1140 hours eastern standard time, a Cessna 152, N94963, operated by Alpha One Flight School located on the Plymouth Municipal Airport, Plymouth, Massachusetts, and piloted by Bruce E. Dickinson of Onset, Massachusetts, sustained substantial damage during a landing after the pilot lost directional control of the airplane and it collided with a snow bank. The student pilot was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The instructional flight was conducted under 14 CFR 91. According to a Federal Aviation Administration Safety Inspector, the student pilot was conducting touch and goes on runway 33 at the Plymouth Municipal Airport in Plymouth, Massachusetts, when the accident occurred. The student pilot reported, "In the flare, power idle, the plane floated a little, approximately 2 [feet] above the ground. I had my controls set and was controlling the cross wind. A gust of wind suddenly raised my left wing, the right main gear touched - the aircraft rolled and yawed to the right. I reacted by adding full aileron and pushing left rudder to straighten out the nose - the aircraft veered left facing the frozen snow bank and continued over the bank." The pilot reported that the local wind at the time of the accident was coming from a magnetic heading of 330 degrees at a speed of 15 knots. The pilot also stated that "...It was moderately bumpy over the tree line." Post accident examination of the airplane revealed that the right wing tip and wing ribs were damaged and the firewall was buckled. No airframe or engine anomalies were reported prior to the accident. The pilot wrote under the Recommendations Section (How Could This Accident Have Been Prevented) on the Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident Report Form, "AMOS (Automated Service Observing System) at [the Plymouth Airport reporting] wind speed [and direction] have been INOP at least since last May [1993], two of the most important items [needed] by pilots. [There is] no radio [frequency] available for in-[flight] AMOS." The student pilot reported that during the flare/touchdown a gust of wind raised the airplane's left wing and the right gear contacted the ground. The pilot stated that the airplane started to pivot to the right so he added full aileron and left rudder to get the airplane back on the runway's centerline. The airplane veered to the left and contacted a snow bank located along the left side of the runway. The right wing was substantially damaged. The pilot reported that the wind was coming from a magnetic heading of 330 degrees at a velocity of 15 knots. The pilot wrote under the Recommendations Section (How could this accident been prevented) on the Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident Report Form, 'AMOS (Automated Service Observing System) at the [airport], [reporting] wind speed [and direction] have been INOP at least since May [1993], two of the most important items [needed] by pilots. [There is] no radio [frequency] available for in-[flight] AMOS.' Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12