NTSB WPR12CA346 — 2012-08-06 · Chula Vista, California, United States

Aircraft involved

N9727F Cessna 208 None

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to arrest the aircraft's sink rate on short final, which resulted in a hard landing.

Factual narrative

The pilot said that while on short final, the airplane experienced a sudden sink rate when the wind went from a head wind to calm conditions. He was unable to arrest the sink rate even after power was applied because of the lag time for the airplane’s turbine engine to spool up. The airplane landed hard, short of the runway. After taxiing to the ramp, examination of the airplane revealed that the left side of the fuselage was dented and wrinkled, and the left main gear was found bent inboard of the axle and its brake assembly was missing. The pilot said that, while on short final, the airplane experienced a sudden sink rate when the wind changed from a head wind to calm conditions. He was unable to arrest the sink rate even after power was applied because of the lag time for the airplane’s turbine engine to spool up. The airplane landed hard short of the runway. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the left side of the fuselage was dented and wrinkled, and the left main landing gear was bent inboard of the axle and was missing its brake assembly. 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-Descent rate-Not attained/maintained - C
C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2012_WPR12CA346.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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