NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR12CA088
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's improper landing flare and inadequate recovery from a bounced landing.
Factual narrative
According to the pilot, as he approached the runway he realized that his decent rate was higher than normal. The airplane touched down hard, bounced, and began to porpoise. The pilot attempted to abort the landing but the airplane yawed left and the nose hit the ground and then nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and to the vertical stabilizer. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airframe that would have precluded normal flight. According to the pilot, as the airplane approached the runway, he realized that the airplane’s descent rate was higher than normal. The airplane touched down hard, bounced, and began to porpoise. The pilot attempted to abort the landing, but the airplane yawed left, its nose hit the ground, and it nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and the vertical stabilizer. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal flight. 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 Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Landing flare-Incorrect use/operation - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2012_WPR12CA088.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. 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 2016 · Conference paper
Early Morning Concurrent Session: Aviation Management and Operations: Presentation: Analysis of Factors Related to True Airspeed (TAS) Calculation Utilizing the Handicap Procedure for the 2015 Women's Air Race Classic
In most post-WWII cross country air racing events, the “handicap” method of determining race scoring is utilized. A typical example is the Women’s Air Race Classic transcontinental annual competition.…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2015 · Conference paper
Approach Stability from FDM Data
The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Prescott Campus maintains a fleet of twenty four aircraft, which includes sixteen Cessna 172S NavIII and four Diamond DA42NG equipped with flight data monitori…
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