NTSB CAROL · Event
Event FTW97LA271
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's delayed landing flare and his improper bounced landing recovery technique.
Factual narrative
On July 16, 1997, at 1745 central daylight time, a Cessna 152 airplane, N4870B, was substantially damaged following a loss of control while landing at the Sherman Municipal Airport, near Sherman, Texas. The solo student pilot was not injured. The airplane was owned by Whitmire Enterprises Inc., and operated by the South Central Flying Service, both of Sherman, Texas, under Title 14 CFR Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local instructional flight for which a flight plan was not filed. The airplane departed from the Sherman Municipal Airport at approximately 1630. A witness at the airport reported that the airplane landed hard on runway 16 and the pilot lost control after the airplane porpoised three times, collapsing the nose landing gear on the second bounce. The witness added that after the propeller impacted the runway, the airplane nosed over, coming to rest in the inverted position. Examination of the 1979 model airplane at the accident site by the FAA inspector confirmed the evidence of propeller slashes on the pavement. The inspector added that the engine firewall was buckled, both wings sustained structural damage and the vertical stabilizer was crushed. The inspector further stated that the student pilot was in the United States from Poland on a student visa to learn to fly, and he had accumulated a total of 18 hours of flight at the time of the accident. A witness at the airport reported that the airplane landed hard on runway 16 and the pilot lost control after the airplane porpoised three times, collapsing the nose landing gear on the second bounce. The witness added that after the propeller impacted the runway, the airplane nosed over, coming to rest in the inverted position. Examination of the airplane at the accident site by the FAA inspector confirmed the evidence of propeller slashes on the pavement. The operator stated that the student pilot was in the United States on a student visa to learn to fly, and he had accumulated a total of 18 hours of flight at the time of the accident. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1997_FTW97LA271.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Scoping Review of Aviation Loss of Control Inflight Research
Loss of control – inflight (LOC-I) contributes to aircraft accidents at unacceptably high rates. Significant industry efforts and research have aimed to improve LOC-I prevention, detection, and recove…
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary comprehensive knowledge-base entry on Loss of Control In-Flight — definitions, contributing factors, accident case studies (Air France 447, Colgan 3407), and prevention strategies.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2022 · Accident report
Loss of Control on Takeoff in Icing Conditions — Citation 560XL
Cessna Citation 560XL fatal takeoff icing accident, March 2018. Investigation of a Citation 560XL loss-of-control takeoff accident in icing conditions.
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Aviation)
ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH
Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source…
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Presentation
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
Abstract—We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Conference Paper
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
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