No fatalities

27 May 2015: AERONCA 7EC NO SERIES — Above Alaska Aviation — Palmer, AK

Palmer, AK, United States

On 27 May 2015, an AERONCA 7EC NO SERIES operated by Above Alaska Aviation was involved in an aviation accident near Palmer, AK. No fatalities were reported. Investigators recorded the probable cause as: The instructor's delayed remedial actions, and the student pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed, which resulted in a stall just above the ground and the subsequent hard landing. This summary draws on records from NTSB; 6 related events involving the same aircraft type or operator are linked below.

SourcesNTSBPrimary reportUpdated 1778583330Data APIEditorial standards

A student pilot and instructor experienced a hard landing during a night cross-country flight in a tailwheel airplane, resulting in substantial damage to the left fuselage.

Incident Details

During a night cross-country flight, a student pilot and his instructor performed two full stop landings in a tailwheel-equipped airplane. On the first landing, the airplane stalled just above the runway. As a result, the front left landing gear made contact with the runway first, leading to a hard landing. The second landing was described as a normal, soft touchdown.

Inspection Findings

A postflight inspection revealed that a portion of the airplane's fuselage on the left side had sustained substantial damage from the hard landing. The instructor pilot stated that there were no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.

Conclusion

No further details regarding the cause of the stall or the circumstances of the flight were provided in the source.

Contributing factors

Student/instructed pilot