History of Flight
On March 26, 2016, at approximately 1208 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 172N, registration N6238D, impacted terrain during an attempted takeoff at Yeager Airport (CRW) in Charleston, West Virginia. The flight instructor sustained fatal injuries, and the student pilot was seriously injured. The aircraft was operated by Skylane Aviation LLC under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as an instructional flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the local flight.
The student pilot reported that the instructor allowed him to taxi from the fixed-base operator, but he had difficulty with the brakes, prompting the instructor to take over and taxi to the runway and run-up area. The student recalled being instructed by air traffic control to expedite the takeoff because another aircraft was landing. During the takeoff roll, the student heard the instructor exclaim as the aircraft rotated, but he remembered no further events.
Airport security surveillance video showed the airplane lift off approximately 1,000 feet down runway 5, then pitch up, roll left, and become inverted before impacting terrain next to the runway in a nose-down attitude.
Personnel Information
The flight instructor held a commercial pilot certificate with airplane single-engine land, multiengine land, and instrument ratings, as well as a flight instructor certificate with airplane single-engine and instrument ratings. She held a second-class medical certificate issued June 11, 2015, and reported 1,694 total flight hours; her personal logbooks were not located.
The student pilot held a student pilot certificate and third-class medical certificate issued March 9, 2016. His logbook recorded 3 total flight hours.
Aircraft Information
The 1979 Cessna 172N was a four-seat, high-wing, tricycle landing gear airplane powered by a 160-horsepower Lycoming O-320-H2AD engine with a two-bladed McCauley propeller. The most recent annual inspection was completed October 20, 2015, at which time the airframe had 10,995.9 total hours and the engine had 1,540.4 hours since major overhaul. The aircraft had accumulated about 7 hours since that inspection.
Maintenance records showed the seat tracks were replaced on February 12, 2015. Airworthiness Directive 2011-10-09 was accomplished during the annual inspection; it required inspection of the seat tracks for wear, debris, and locking pin play.
The seats were mounted on tracks allowing fore-aft adjustment via an adjustment bar with two locking pins. The pins engage one of twelve positions and are spring-loaded to ensure positive locking.
Wreckage and Impact Information
The wreckage was confined to a small area, with ground scars indicating a nose-low, right-wing-down impact. The airplane came to rest inverted about 20 yards left of midfield on runway 5. The engine and propeller were displaced upward into the instrument panel and cockpit. Both wing leading edges were crushed. The fuselage had a single wrinkle aft of the rear window. Flight control surfaces and cables remained intact and connected. The elevator trim jackscrew corresponded to a neutral setting. The engine crankshaft rotated freely with valve train continuity and compression on all cylinders. The propeller exhibited rotational scoring and one blade tip was missing.
Examination of the flight instructor's seat revealed all four roller housing tangs were spread and bent. The seat tracks showed gouging where the locking pins contacted. One locking pin was fractured at the roll pin. Lockpin contact marks were found at the eleventh hole from the front of the inboard seat rail, consistent with the seat being near full-aft at impact.
The fractured locking pin and outboard seat post were examined. The pin failed due to bending deformation, with the outboard side in tension and inboard side in compression. The stop-pin hole exhibited necking on the outboard side, and contact marks were present on the lower side of the hole consistent with contact along the roll pin split line.
Additional Information
The Pilot's Information Manual advised verifying seats, seat belts, and shoulder harnesses are locked before starting the engine. The Cessna Pilot Safety and Warnings Supplements warned pilots to visually confirm the seat is securely locked on the tracks, noting that an unlocked seat could slide aft during initial climb. A service bulletin (SEB07-R06, Revision 6, June 11, 2015) required installation of a secondary seat stop for the pilot seat and recommended one for the copilot seat; neither was installed on the accident airplane. The supplement also cited previous events of seat slippage due to discrepancies such as gouged lockpin holes, bent lockpins, excessive roller clearance, and debris accumulation.
Medical and Pathological Information
An autopsy performed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Charleston, West Virginia, listed the flight instructor's cause of death as multiple injuries. The instructor's height was 69 inches. Toxicological testing conducted on the instructor by the FAA Bioaeronautical Sciences Research Laboratory was negative for carbon monoxide and drugs.