NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA11CA169
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The student pilot's improper recovery from a bounced landing.
Factual narrative
According to the student pilot, he was attempting a second touch and go landing to runway 6 at a cross country airport. As he turned the airplane on to final approach, another airplane was crossing the runway threshold for a full stop landing. The student pilot continued the approach, but slowed the airplane due to "excess" airspeed during the first landing, and to give the other airplane time to clear the runway. After crossing the runway threshold, the student pilot reduced the power to idle and began a flare. The main landing gear touched down harder than he anticipated, and the airplane "must have bounced." When the nose landing gear touched down, it broke away from the airplane and the propeller struck the runway. According to a Federal Aviation Administration inspector, the airplane incurred substantial damage to the engine firewall. The student pilot did not report any preexisting mechanical anomalies with the airplane, and winds recorded at the airport 9 minutes earlier were from 120 degrees true at 4 knots. According to the student pilot, he was attempting a second touch-and-go landing and takeoff. As he turned the airplane on to final approach, another airplane was crossing the runway threshold for a full stop landing. The pilot continued the approach, but slowed the airplane due to excess airspeed during the first landing, and to give the other airplane time to clear the runway. After crossing the runway threshold, he reduced the power to idle and began to flare. The main landing gear touched down harder than he anticipated, and the pilot said the airplane must have bounced. When the nose landing gear touched down, it broke away from the airplane and the propeller struck the runway. According to a Federal Aviation Administration inspector, the airplane incurred substantial damage to the engine firewall. The pilot did not report any preexisting mechanical anomalies with the airplane. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Pitch control-Incorrect use/operation - C
- C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Incorrect action performance-Student pilot - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2011_ERA11CA169.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.