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ERA14CA095

2014-01-16 · Milledgeville, Georgia, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport MLJ

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The student pilots inadequate landing flare, which resulted in a hard landing.

Factual narrative

According to the student pilot, while flying the final leg of the traffic pattern, during his solo flight, he noticed that the airplane was "too high," and pulled the power to idle. Then he noted that the airplane was "too fast" and applied back pressure to the control yoke. The airplane then ballooned and subsequently the student pilot added power to go around; however, the airplane impacted the runway in a nose down attitude, became airborne, impacted the runway again, the nose gear assembly collapsed, and the airplane came to rest in the dirt on the left side of the runway. The accident sequence resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage. There were no reported preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. According to the student pilot, while flying the final leg of the traffic pattern, during his solo flight, he noticed that the airplane was "too high," and pulled the power to idle. Then he noted that the airplane was "too fast" and applied back pressure to the control yoke. The airplane then ballooned and subsequently  the student pilot added power to go around; however, the airplane impacted the runway in a nose down attitude, became airborne, impacted the runway again, the nose gear assembly collapsed, and the airplane came to rest in the dirt on the left side of the runway. The accident sequence resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage. There were no reported preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Student pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2014_ERA14CA095.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.