Incident Overview
A student pilot was conducting a landing approach to runway 4 shortly after 0600 hours. The approach placed the aircraft directly into the early morning sunrise, impairing the pilot's visibility. According to the pilot, he "could no longer see (his) instrument panel or the runway." He then added power to execute a go-around, but reported that "the next thing was the sound of the airplane hitting the ground."
Pilot Report
The pilot stated that he waited too long to abort the landing. No further details about the aircraft or injuries were provided in the preliminary report.
Environmental Conditions
At the time of the incident, the sun was at an elevation angle of 5.23 degrees above the horizon and an azimuth of 48.41 degrees magnetic, creating direct glare along the final approach path.